A primary care health provider or PCP is the doctor who cares for your total health on a regular basis. Primary care physicians provide wellness visits, care for illness, and help manage chronic conditions. They also act as the “point person” for all of your medical care when you require treatment from a specialist for a specific condition, to make certain that everything is going right for you. A doctor of internal medicine, or an internist, often serves as a primary care doctor. Internists have expertise and special interest in the broad range of preventing, identifying, and treating illnesses that adults may face, no matter how complex.
Internal Medicine
A doctor of internal medicine completes a four-year medical degree program followed by a three-year residency in internal medicine. Though internists are trained and experienced in an extensive range of medical disciplines for conditions affecting adults, they do not see children, practice obstetrics, or perform surgery. This leaves many areas of knowledge in which an internist may be an expert. They are often called upon by other physicians to consult on a particularly puzzling or complex case and are ideally suited to provide primary care to adults.
Primary Care
Primary care includes having the first medical contact with a patient who has an undiagnosed condition, symptoms that are hidden or that the patient does not disclose, a chronic condition requiring continuous care, or a specific disorder requiring a specialist where the primary care physician will coordinate care. In the role of managing care, the primary care physician provides a context for symptoms and test results through a thorough understanding of the patient’s history and the onset of symptoms.
Because primary care is ideally a long-term doctor/patient relationship, the doctor will be there to see if there are any changes that could indicate the development of a health condition. This puts them in the position of being able to prevent more serious issues by addressing a condition in the very early stages.
History of Internal Medicine
The discipline of internal medicine can be traced back to the late 1800s. Sir William Osler is considered the father of internal medicine in the United States. He advocated applying the “new” scientific methods (at the time) to diagnosing medical conditions. A doctor who chooses to specialize in internal medicine not only studies general health and conditions that adults may face, but also requires experience with specialties within internal medicine, including infectious disease, gastroenterology, endocrinology, dermatology, psychiatry, sleep medicine, and more.
This training and experience, coupled with education on taking a wide view of a patient’s health through a meaningful and long term medical relationship, prepares internists to be excellent primary care doctors. Some internists do go on to specialize further in disciplines like cardiology, neurology, or other internal specialties through additional fellowship training. It is often a general internist who patients come to see regularly as their primary care physicians.
Patients in South Carolina seeking expert and comprehensive care from primary care physicians trust SC Internal Medicine Associates & Rehabilitation. If you have a health concern or are looking for a new primary care physician to be your partner in health, call (803) 749-1111 for an appointment at our office in Irmo, South Carolina today.
