Patients on the inpatient medicine services run the gamut of complaints that may require not only care by primary care physicians but also involvement of a number of specialty services—some within internal medicine such as cardiology, nephrology, or infectious diseases, and others from a variety of non–internal medicine specialties (e.g., surgery). Furthermore, the majority of the medical care of adult patients now occurs primarily in the outpatient setting, and coordination of ambulatory care and preventive medicine fall within the purview of the general internist. Based on the shift of care to the outpatient setting, most Internal Medicine Clerkships and Internal Medicine Residencies include significant time in the ambulatory setting.

This book is not meant to be an exhaustive approach to all aspects of Internal Medicine. Rather, the book serves as a framework to introduce students and residents to patient care utilizing a competency-based approach. Information surrounding each patient’s diagnosis, or consideration of additional aspects of clinical presentation, diagnosis, and management, should be supplemented by the reading of standard internal medicine textbooks (such as Andreoli and Carpenter’s Cecil Essentials of Medicine, 8e). It is also critically important that students and residents utilize the principles of self-directed learning to ensure that they develop the attitudes and skills to learn medicine for the rest of their careers.

The book begins with several introductory chapters that provide an overview into the organizational structure, consideration of the principles surrounding the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) competencies, and “Tips for the Medicine Clerkship.” These are followed by 58 case-based chapters that are divided into the following 11 sections: