“ The way we live disease differs from individual to individual. Well, the internist has the particularity of focusing on the patient, not on the disease – and sometimes there is more than one disease, or it may have greater expression in one organ than in another. The role of Internal Medicine is precisely to take an integrative view of the patient ”, explained António Carneiro , in an interview on Porto Canal, on October 24, in the TV show “Consultório”. Internist and intensivist, and clinical director of Hospital da Luz Arrábida, António Carneiro also talked about the different intervention levels of Internal Medicine – from the emergency service to hospitalization – and the type of diseases it follows the most. Internal Medicine is the medical speciality with the greater number of specialists (about three thousand). It is dedicated to adult patients, in particular the prevention, diagnosis, and non-surgical therapeutic guidance in diseases of different organs and systems. As such, it intervenes in practically every medical problem. “The majority of the diseases we follow today in Internal Medicine are not curable, although treatable. They are chronic diseases” , further explained António Carneiro, enumerating a few of the major challenges for internists: Take an integrative view of the patient; Based on that integrative view, they must be able to combine symptoms, signs, the history of the patient, etc. and reach an early diagnosis, so as to have more “weapons” for treatment; Manage the patient resorting to partnerships with other medical specialities (citing the example of the Heart Insufficiency Consultation at Hospital da Luz Arrábida, where partnership is fundamental between Internal Medicine and cardiologists, arrhythmologists and imagiologists); Manage hospitalization, with all type of patients. Watch the interview to António Carneiro on Porto Canal: first part of TV show “Consultório" second part of TV show “Consultório"
