The Branches of Medicine

In the United States and Canada, medicine currently is divided into 24 distinct area, or specialties, each with its own rule making and certifying body. The largest divisions are further divided into subspecialties that have additional requirements for training and certification. In the following description, these 24 divisions of non surgical, surgical and hospital bases specialties, with family practice as a separate field. For a description of nursing’s fields, see nursing.

Nonsurgical Specialties

The nonsurgical specialties that involve patient care include internal medicine, medical genetics, pediatrics, allergy and immunology, dermatology, preventive medicine, and psychiatry and neurology.

Practitioners of internal medicine, or internist, are concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of adults with diseases of the internal organs. Those called general internists are primary care physicians, they see patients directly on a long-term basis and refer them to other specialists only for specific problems. Many internist specialists only for specific area of the body.