There are so many specialties in the field of medicine. It is a very daunting task for many medical students to choose an area that may impact the rest of their careers. Many of them have to make such decisions in year two and year three, so they can apply and interview during the last year of their medical school. Unfortunately, there is not enough exposure to a variety of the medical field before and during medical school. When I was in training, I still remember that I could never experience other subspecialties such as ear, nose, throat, surgical oncology, etc. Internal Medicine did catch my eye because my uncle was an internist. I spend a summer working as a scribe in his office, helping patients and families with appointments and treatment plans. I debated between surgery and Internal Medicine, and I chose IM. I am currently a board-certified Internal Medicine doctor who specializes in cardiovascular diseases. These are the reasons why I chose Internal Medicine as my career.

1. It has a variety of subspecialties to choose from.

Internal Medicine provides a wide variety of subspecialties for you to choose from. You can be in the office seeing patients as well as performing procedures. In medical school, we believe that Internal Medicine opens up many doors to many specialties in the future if you want to go onto a fellowship. But you can also practice internal medicine without further training. Subspecialties such as Cardiology, Nephrology, Pulmonary, Critical Care, Rheumatology, Infectious disease, and more are all under Internal Medicine. Each specialty requires a different length of training, and there will be one that you love. For example, Cardiology requires three years of additional training after the Internal Medicine residency. If you want to specialize within the subset of Cardiology, you can also pursue one year of Interventional Cardiology or two years of electrophysiology. In addition, different specialty gives different types of practice and lifestyle. For example, as an interventional cardiologist, you will be expected to be on-call at night if someone has a heart attack. On the contrary, you can practice in the office having a nine to five job seeing patients and managing their chronic conditions without being on call in the hospital.

2. You get to own breadth of knowledge on everything medicine.

Internal medicine is an enjoyable field. You have to be an extremely well-rounded physician to be a good internist. You need to know how to treat diabetes, irritable bowel syndrome, heart disease, and other exciting pathology. Being an internist is similar to being a detective. You will have to gather information and synthesize the potential causes of the symptoms that your patients present with. For example, if the patient presents with shortness of breath, you will have to take a complete history and physical examination. In addition to laboratory and imaging investigation, you can determine if the patient has pneumonia or has a new onset congestive heart failure exacerbation. In the hospital setting, you will be able to manage many acute diagnoses and stabilize patients on the floor. You help with pre-operative assessment for patients undergoing urgent surgeries. You also have to take care of patients’ overall diagnoses and the trajectory of their admission. On the contrary, if you are practicing as a primary care physician, you will have the opportunity to manage chronic conditions in the office setting. Your decisions can make a tremendous impact on someone’s life.

3. You develop a lifelong relationship with your patients

When you dream of becoming a doctor, an internist is what comes into people’s minds. People envision a doctor involved in their medical care, making diagnoses, and providing a treatment plan that improves the suffering from a medical condition. Internal Medicine is a unique field because it gives you all of the above. It also provides an opportunity to interact with the same individual for a very long time. Most internists have a panel of patients that they have seen for 30 years. You get to help those patients with their conditions for a long time. During training, I was able to see the same patients for three years, and I was able to see how their conditions improved with the medication I provided for them. I still receive thank you notes from the same family from time to time, and it reminds me of how fulfilling being an internist can be.

I hope you find this article helpful. Being an internist is different from being a surgeon or a radiologist. In addition to the points above, the lack of primary care physicians and internists also makes this field most appealing from a financial standpoint. Good luck with medical school, residency, and fellowship if you are in training.

For my list of self-improvement items, check out the books that I recommend,

Rich Dad, Poor Dad: https://amzn.to/39d33lT

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: https://amzn.to/3M7JM3K

The Emporer of All Maladies: https://amzn.to/39Gj2ca

Gifted hands:https://amzn.to/38kp1mL

The Power of Habits: https://amzn.to/3MpwHmk

Cook County ICU Interesting Cases: https://amzn.to/3lgzpPp