You’ll notice the letters “F.A.C.P.” behind my name. This indicates that I am a Fellow in the American College of Physicians, a national organization of internists. ACP is the largest medical-specialty organization and second-largest physician group in the United States, and it does good work.
The Doctor Is In
I'm a physician and writer in St. Paul, Minnesota. I'm board certified in internal medicine, which may be the most confusing specialty name out there (besides neonatal psychiatry and invertebrate orthopedics). Internal medicine has nothing to do with surgery; we're often called "internists," but that's easily confused with the term 'intern,' which is what one would call a physician who is in his or her first year of residency training. A better term for what I do is "Adult Medicine," or "Doctor For Adults." Like family medicine or pediatrics, internists are primary care physicians, but we don't see children or pregnant women (You're WHAT?!). Instead we tend to see older, or sicker, or more complicated patients, and because of that training, a number of internists work exclusively with hospitalized patients. That's what I do. That's what I am: a hospitalist. That's why it's rarely a good thing when I run into someone I know at work. Unless they just had a baby; and then I steer clear.
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