Training and future of Internal Medicine

Abstract

The future role of Internal Medicine must defi­ne itself more clearly in order to enable us to provide an appropriate post-graduate educati­on. The General Internist inherited role as mas­ter diagnosttcian-consultant has been largely usurped by technical advances. ln the last years, some policies have been implemented aimed at training General Internists as Primary Care Specialists, and thus artificially restricting thetr clinical activities. These were the two major rea­sons for the decreasing number of General In­ternists and an increasing number of Sub-speci­ality Internists. Another important point is that Internal Medicine doesn't give sufficient outpa­tient experience during the undergraduate me­dical training period, which is a wonderful oppor­tunity to experience the value of Internal Medi­cine as a career of choice. ln the United States, health care evolved into a largely Specialist/Sub­ specialist system and now proves to be more expensive while the outcomes are not clearly bet­ter. The author presents some ideas that he be­ lieves would increase the attractiveness of Ge­neral Internal Medicine.