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internal medicine

internal medicine

10 3.2
A branch of medicine that finds and treats diseases of adults' internal organs without surgery
  • noun
  • /ɪnˈtɜrnəl ˈmɛdɪsɪn/
  • Specialized
translation icon : medicina interna
  • Are you board-certified in internal medicine?
  • internal medicine department
  • internal medicine residency
  • internal medicine practice

I spent three years at Northwestern as a as internal medicine resident.

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Examples

  • Ken was a rare double threat, holding advanced degrees in internal medicine and neurology.

    Fiction book (1992)
  • The range of diseases that we see is quite varied in internal medicine, which is why I love it.

  • Yeah, they do better with internal medicine there.

  • This hospital, it has more experience with internal medicine.

  • The largest share of those doctors specialized in family practice, internal medicine, and emergency care.

    Blog text (15)
  • You are chief of internal medicine at a hospital which serves 5,426 people.

  • For example, the division of internal medicine expanded from six to twenty-two faculty physicians.

    Academic text (1999)
  • We need to collaborate with colleagues in geriatric medicine, internal medicine, and family medicine to meet the expectations of our aging population.

    Academic text (2009)
  • According to a recent survey, physicians specializing in general pediatrics or internal medicine earn an average of $175,000 per year.

    Academic text (2007)
  • Dr. Samuel M. Kim is an internal medicine resident at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Synonyms

general medicine
vsinternal medicine
  • Specialized
1 3.4

Health care that finds and treats adults' diseases of the organs inside the body without surgery

is the same field but named differently in some places

How Specialized

cardiothoracic
  • Specialized
7 4.4
cardiology
  • Specialized
20 3.8
internal medicine
  • Specialized
10 3.2
medicine
  • Specialized
873 2.8

Surface Forms

Morphology

internal + medicine

The meaning is directly compositional: 'internal' (inside, relating to internal organs) modifies 'medicine' (the medical field), so a learner who knows both words can infer this refers to the medical specialty treating internal organs. This adjective+noun combination is cross-linguistically transparent (e.g., medicina interna, médecine interne), so despite being somewhat technical its sense is predictable to a B1 learner.

Etymology

Internal medicine comes from the simple image of doctors using medicine to care for what is internal, the organs 'inside the body'. So, it now means medical care focused on diagnosing and treating illnesses 'inside the body', especially in adults.