It is regarded as the true supreme discipline: Internal medicine is the subspecialty of the great complex of medicine, which deals with the diagnosis and treatment of diseases of all internal organs - without surgery. Internal medicine therefore deals with the structure, function and diseases of all organ systems. It can therefore be considered a universal link between all medical disciplines.
It is therefore also clear that the field of internal medicine is huge. As the central discipline of medicine itself, it offers specialists in internal medicine - i.e. internists - a wide range of possibilities for specialization. These include the vascular systems, i.e. angiology, topics such as metabolism and hormones (endocrinology and diabetology) and all digestive organs - i.e. the complete gastroenterology and hepatology.
But this is by no means all that specialists in internal medicine can focus on. In diagnostics and non-operative treatment there are other internal organs they can specialize in. All cardiovascular diseases fall into this field, i.e. cardiology. Other areas include the kidney with the urinary tract (nephrology), the respiratory organs (pneumology), the skeleton and the connective tissue.
But this is still not all. Internists can also gain additional qualifications - and become experts in addiction medicine or tropical medicine. Infectiology, i.e. the study of infections and infectious diseases, also offers an opportunity for specialization.