What You Should Know About General Medicine
General medicine is a broad specificity that involves diagnosing and treating numerous diseases concerning various parts of the body. A General medicine doctor treats acute and chronic conditions from head to toe. Therefore, general medicine doctors are commonly called general physicians. Usually, people have fixed general physicians for their regular health check-ups, called ‘family doctors’.
Meaning of General Medicine
General medicine meaning may be arranged as the branch of science that deals with the diagnosis and treatment of people with the help of medication, non-surgically, in adults. So, for instance, you may come across general medicine practitioners treating children; they may have additional specialisation in paediatrics.
Role of a General Physician
The common areas in which a general medicine doctor works are listed below.
- Diagnose the part of the body concerned with the symptoms being manifested. After the diagnosis, they may refer to a specialist.
- Providing general medicine to individuals of all ages.
- General medicine is also concerned with giving preventive care like immunisation and is involved with medical camps.
- As pointed out earlier, a general medicine doctor is often referred to as a family doctor as they provide comprehensive medical treatment to everyone in the family in the long run. Usually the neighbourhood general medicine doctor is the one who becomes a family’s go-to doctor.
- General medicine also manages follow-up care after the tenure with a specialist is over.
Education and training
To become the best general medicine doctor in Kolkata, you must undergo rigorous training and study. Firstly, you must crack the NEET UG examination and get into a good college. After that, you must pursue an MBBS course for four years and participate in a 1-year internship. This 5-year degree is compulsory. Accessorily, you may join as a resident doctor and gain experience. MD in general medicine is a great way to increase your knowledge and skills. However, you are eligible to become a general medicine doctor after you complete your MBBS from a reputed college.
To become a family physician, MD, general medicine practitioners also hone skills to treat people of all ages, children, adults, and all genders. Unfortunately, few general medicine physicians take special courses to diagnose mental illness for the betterment of their patients, especially young adults who have difficulty coping with their surroundings.
Treatments in General Medicine
While consulting a doctor, you must know the areas they might be able to help you with. There exists some lack of knowledge of the abilities of general medicine, and awareness is required.
Routine check-up like diabetes, blood pressure, high cholesterol, sexually transmitted diseases, and sometimes depression is diagnosed. Often, general medicine is instrumental in diagnosing these diseases early and saving thousands of patients’ lives. In addition, you may consult a general medicine doctor if your family has a history of longstanding chronic illness for early diagnosis and to initiate the treatment.
Urgent care regarding illness or injury is also done by general medicine. One should consult mild sickness or injury with the nearest medical practitioner. An MD general medicine doctor can treat acute diseases like asthma attacks, migraines, colds, flu, fever, minor wounds, dehydration, superficial skin rashes, and broken bones.
One can also consult general medicine to maintain a healthy lifestyle in general.
What to expect at your visit to a general medicine doctor
The visit may last up to 10 to 30 minutes, depending on the seriousness of your ailment. Generally, the following things are involved in the visit.
- Assessment of your health.
- Taking note of your weight and blood pressure.
- Discussion of medical history and symptoms.
- Recommending or running a diagnostic test to get to the root of your problem.
- Development of a treatment plan and explaining all the steps to you.
- A suggestion of any lifestyle changes that might be necessary for your well-being.
- Prescribing medication.
- Refer to a specialist if needed, or arrange for a follow-up to check on the progress towards betterment.
Diseases treated under general medicine
Fever can be classified as one of the most common symptoms that general medicine doctors treat. Generally, it is an indication of a disease of a higher magnitude. General medicine physicians try to go deep to find out the leading cause of fever, and in the meantime, they suppress the fever. They may suggest blood tests or other tests to make sure of curing it all.
MD General medicine doctors also work with asthma patients. It is a chronic condition where the airway is narrowed down by the thickened layer of mucus and swelling. Asthma leads to coughing and difficulty breathing. Asthma attacks prevent individuals from performing their day-to-day activities.
Besides this, they also take care of your liver which is an essential organ of our body and purifies the blood. With excess consumption of alcohol and drugs, the liver may get affected. Chronic cases of the liver are treated by general medicine. Viral infection and genetic diseases may also lead to conditions involving the liver. A few heart diseases, overweight, hypertension, chest pain, and abdomen pain are also treated by general medicine. It will be best to consult a general medicine practitioner before rushing to a specialist.
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