Internal Medicine or General Medicine is the medical specialty dealing with the prevention, diagnosis, and nonsurgical treatment of adult diseases and diseases affecting the internal organs of the body in adults.
Specialists in Internal Medicine or Specialist General Physicians are skilled in the management of patients who have undifferentiated or multi-system disease processes. The Physician is an expert in diagnosing what is wrong and managing illnesses that are complex.
Neck and back pain may occur at any stage in a persons life.
The pain may be simply due to a muscle strain but if persistent it usually arises from the discs or joints of the spine as they begin to degenerate or “wear out” as a result of normal ageing.
Pain may occur through loading the spine with normal activities of daily living, or as a result of injuries (falls, lifting, sport etc). Tingling or pain extending down an arm or a leg may be due to compression of a spinal nerve.
Ageing or degeneration in the discs or joints of the spine is a very common cause of neck or back pain, less commonly persistent neck or back pain is due to fracture (especially in osteoporosis) or slippage of the spine (spondylolisthesis), and very rarely infections of the spine or cancer of the spine.
Spinal surgery is a procedure that aims to change a patient’s anatomy, such as removing a herniated disc that is causing pain, with the purpose of providing pain relief. Spinal operations vary. Some spinal surgeries are minimally invasive and allowing for quick recovery and spinal surgeries are more extensive and requiring longer recoveries.
Conditions Commonly Treated
Operations Commonly Performed
Endocrinology is a speciality that evaluates and treats suspected endocrine gland and metabolic bone disorders. Glands that secrete hormones directly into the blood stream include the pituitary, thyroid, parathyroid, adrenals, ovaries and testes. Diabetes is a disorder of pancreatic gland secretion and is managed as a separate speciality.
An endocrinologist specialises in diagnosing and treating disorders such as diabetes, infertility and thyroid, adrenal and pituitary gland problems.
Nephrology is the subspecialty of internal medicine that focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of diseases of the kidney. Because the kidney performs so many critical functions, nephrologists maintain expertise in primary kidney disorders, but also the management of the systemic consequences of kidney dysfunction. Although the prevention and identification and management of early kidney disease is a large part of general internal medicine practice, nephrologists are usually called upon to assist and manage more complex or advanced nephrologic disorders.
Geriatrics is the branch of medicine that focuses on health promotion, prevention, and diagnosis and treatment of disease and disability in older adults.
Geriatricians are Specialists in Internal Medicine who have special knowledge of the aging process and special skills in the diagnostic, therapeutic, preventive and rehabilitative aspects of illness in the elderly. The Geriatrician cares for geriatric patients in the patient’s home, the office, long-term care settings such as nursing homes, and the hospital.
Like Specialists in Internal Medicine, the Geriatrician cares for the whole person, having a holistic approach – managing adult medical conditions as well as treating patients with one or more geriatric syndromes such as falls, delirium, dementia, incontinence or polypharmacy. They are trained to diagnose conditions that often present differently in older adults; develop care plans that address the special health care needs of older adults; communicate with families and other caregivers; be responsible for care coordination across settings; and to take a patient-centred, holistic approach to maintaining older adults’ functional status, independence and quality of life.
The Specialist Centre offers Executives and Professionals a personalised, and convenient medical service to optimise their health by assessing, treating and preventing medical and lifestyle risk factors that may lead to chronic disease.
We provide a range of periodic medical assessments to assist in the management of their health. Education and advice to help them cope with the demands of balancing busy work and personal lives. Goals to prevent the complications of unrecognised disease processes such as hypertension.
Perioperative medicine is the multidisciplinary, integrated care of patients from the moment surgery is contemplated through to recovery. It involves:
Perioperative medicine aims to facilitate effective communication with the patient and their family to ensure that surgical outcomes align with their expectations and wishes.
The perioperative specialist will help patients navigate the healthcare system and co-ordinate their care by different clinicians and sub-specialties through shared decision making. The goal is to improve the patient experience, reduce postoperative complications, reduce inpatient hospital days and reduce early re-admissions following surgery.