Internal medicine, or IM, is, by many, considered to be the cornerstone of comprehensive adult health care. Highly skilled, experienced medical professionals specializing in this area are often referred to as “Internists”.
The term “Internal Medicine” can be traced back to the 17th century when it was first articulated by Thomas Sydenham. The discipline of internal medicine spread in popularity across Germany in the early 18th century, and then, subsequently, across the world. Today, modern thinking has internal medicine as being the combining of laboratory science with patient care.
Samitivej Hospital has, over many years, embraced internal medicine by complimenting its establishments with the most highly of qualified practitioners in the field. Only those individuals with the highest level of medical training and experience, and with the capacity to understand the most complex of medical issues, work in this area.
These professionals are able to absorb the most complex of multiple data sets, interpret and create solutions, seemingly giving answers to the unanswerable. The ability to see a bigger picture and to forge links between, what seem to be abstract entities, has led them to very often being referred to the “Doctor’s doctor”.
Explaining Internal Medicine
Internal medicine concerns every aspect of the inner body, all of its organs, muscles and joints. There are 78 organs in the human body, 360 joints and around 600 different muscles. Each one of these can be prone to its own set of peculiar health issues, in defects or disease.
In addition to their own peculiarities, they can all be susceptible to, and affected by, one single disorder, such as high blood pressure, cancer or diabetes. Internal medicine attempts to identify a particular health issue, isolate the cause and treat accordingly. With the myriad of internal body parts, and an almost incalculable number of health disorders, this requires the very best of medical practitioners.
Internal Medicine Services and Facilities
As you would expect from a leading health care organization, The Samitivej Hospital Group operate at a world class level. Each of their establishments is equipped with cutting edge, state of the art equipment for diagnostics and treatment, housed in purpose built facilities. These are backed up by equally modern and well-equipped laboratory and development facilities, keeping Samitivej Hospital at the forefront of internal medicine.
The hospital has no less than 63 fully equipped examination and treatment rooms and able to diagnose and treat within all areas of medicine. Major areas of diagnosis and treatment include disorders such as endocrinology.
Endocrinology specialists are qualified professionals that diagnose and treat a multitude of conditions, such as certain cancers, diabetes, metabolic disorders, thyroid diseases, hormonal disorders, infertility, growth issues, and osteoporosis,
Samitivej Hospital’s skilled hematologists deal with diseases and disorders of the blood. Although there are too many to list in their entirety, they may include Hodgkin’s lymphoma, leukemia, essential thrombocythemia, hemophilia, myelofibrosis, and paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria.
Cancer prevention, diagnosis and treatment is conducted by Samitivej’s leading oncologists. There are in excess of 200 different types of cancer, some of those treated by Samitivej Hospital’s oncologists include, pancreatic, prostate, thyroid, and uterine cancer, as well as bladder, breast, colorectal and kidney Cancer.
Samitivej Hospital has highly trained doctors in the area of nephrology, specializing in the kidneys. There are many diseases which affect the kidneys and the hospital’s nephrologists excel in the early diagnosis of many disorders, including, amyloidosis, lupus nephritis, pyelonephritis, glomerulonephritis and pyelonephritis. Some of these diseases are less common than others, but the hospital’s nephrologists have a depth of knowledge second to none.
Neurology is the science, diagnosis and treatment diseases of the brain and spinal cord, along with its peripheral nerves and muscles. Alzheimer’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), ataxia. Bell’s palsy, cerebral aneurysm, epilepsy, as well as spinal chord injuries and brain tumors are just a few of the complex issues that Samitivej’s neurologists diagnose and treat.
Samitivej hospitals pulmonologists are deeply knowledgeable and well versed in the diagnosis and treatment of all respiratory disorders and diseases. Asthma and emphysema are quite common, but less familiar diseases are regularly treated, including, but exclusively, tuberculosis, pulmonary hypertension, cystic fibrosis and chronic obstructive lung disease, or COPD.
Inflammation in the bones, joints, muscles and internal organs is a specialized area of medicine covered by the hospital’s rheumatologists. Osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis, along with gout and pseudogout are the most common afflictions diagnosed and treated by Samitivej’s rheumatologists. With over 200 rheumatoid related disorders, this is a very complex area of internal medicine and requires highly skilled professionals.
The cariologists at Samitivej Hospital diagnose and treat many differing heart conditions. Some, such as a hole in the heart are now routinely dealt with via surgery, with little or no long term affects. Other conditions, such as cardio vascular disease can be life threatening and need immediate medical intervention.
Angina and high blood pressure and are diagnosed and treated on a regular basis, as are congenital and inherited diseases. Some disorders, such coronary heart disease, which cannot be cured, require symptomatic treatment and imparted knowledge regarding lifestyle in order to manage the disease.
Within Samitivej Hospital’s Internal Medicine Clinic, clinical microbiologists, immunologists, parasitologists and virologist work together, along with epidemiologists in the ever-widening spectrum of the diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases.
Today, like never before, has this area of medicine been thrust into the limelight. The combined work of the multi-skilled teams at Samitivej Hospital have, not only excelled in the diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases, but have now raised the standard to which all others aspire.
The study of infectious diseases requires a unique level of knowledge and skills to understand the complex relationships between hosts and infectious agents. The epidemiologists are of vital help in understanding how a virus spreads or transmits, be it with or without disease.
To maintain consistently high standards in the diagnosis and treatment on internal medical issues, requires doctors with unique skills and knowledge, both medical and beyond. To be able to see the big picture, and to join the dots within the complexities of the unfathomable, is a level that not all can attain. Samitivej Hospital retains doctors with these unique talents which maintains their reverence as a world leader in health care.
