<p>&ldquo;Internists&rdquo; are doctors of Internal Medicine, or doctors for adults. You may see us referred to by several terms, including &quot;internists,&quot; &quot;general internists&quot;, and &quot;doctors of internal medicine.&quot; Please don&#039;t mistake us with &quot;interns,&quot; who are doctors in their first year of residency training. Although we are primary care physicians, we are not &quot;family physicians,&quot; &quot;family practitioners,&quot; or &quot;general practitioners,&quot; whose training is not solely concentrated on adults. <br />
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The term &quot;Internal Medicine&quot; comes from the German term Innere Medizin, a discipline popularized in Germany in the late 1800s to describe physicians who combined the science of the laboratory with the care of patients. Many early 20th century American doctors studied medicine in Germany and brought this medical field to the United States. Thus, the name &quot;internal medicine&quot; was adopted. Like many words adopted from other languages, it unfortunately doesn&#039;t exactly fit an American meaning. <br />
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Information above adapted from the <a class=&quot;curnagivation&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;http://www.acponline.org/patients_families/&quot;>American College of Physicians-American Society of Internal Medicine website</a></p>