What's An Internist?

The following is a brief description as defined by the American College of Physicians:

INTERNISTS

• receive three years of additional training after medical school and undergo a rigorous test by the American Board of Internal Medicine. On passing these exams they become "Board certified".
• are specialists who provide continuing, personal, non-surgical health care, often over a patient's lifetime, to a large portion of adults in this country.
• are broadly educated to deal with the wide range of patient's problems.
• are trained in depth to be highly expert diagnosticians, especially thorough and scientific in their approach.
• care not just for "diseases" in a scientific way, but for patients as whole people.
• provide "first-line" care, complex care, or consultant care, as needed by their patients and their communities.