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Physicians
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Physicians diagnose diseases and injuries, administer treatment,
and advise patients on good diet and other ways to stay healthy.
The United States has two kinds of physicians, the Doctor of Medicine
(MD) and the Doctor of Osteopathy (DO). Both use medicines, surgery,
and other standard methods of treating disease. DOs place special
emphasis on problems involving the musculoskeletal system, which
includes muscles, ligaments, bones, and joints.
Patients receive medical care from primary care doctors and specialists.
Primary care doctors include general practitioners, family physicians,
general internists, and general pediatricians. Many women also use
obstetricians-gynecologists as primary care doctors. Patients usually
consult a primary care doctor when they first become ill or injured.
Primary care physicians can treat most common disorders, and provide
comprehensive, lifelong care for individuals and families.
But
medical knowledge has advanced so far that no physician can master
an entire field of medicine. Primary care doctors may refer patients
with unusually complicated problems to specialists with advanced
training in a particular disease or field of medicine. Specialists
may even concentrate in one particular area, and become subspecialists.
Each specialist in internal medicine, for instance, is an expert
in diagnosis and nonsurgical treatment of adult diseases. But some
internists take advanced training to become subspecialists in treating
adolescents, heart disease, elderly people, cancer, or arthritis.
For more information about the areas that specialists treat, see
the table on Medical Specialties.
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