202. DOCTORS -- DIFFERENT KINDS

DOCTORS  --  DIFFERENT KINDS

Doctors, also called physicians, have an effect on everyone’s life.

They treat people when they are sick or hurt. They give advice to patients to help keep them from getting sick.

They bandage knees, prescribe medicine, sew up cuts, and operate on bones.

They bring new babies into the world and comfort older people who are sick or dying.

Some doctors see all kinds of patients, and other doctors only see patients with a particular illness or injury.

There are even doctors who never see patients at all.

Family Practice Doctors

Most people have a family doctor. This is the person who sees and treats all members of the family. These doctors are usually called family practice or primary care doctors. They are trained to provide medical care to everyone from pregnant mothers to babies and adults. If their patients need further treatment, or need more specialized care, family practice doctors may refer them to a specialist.
Some family practice doctors work in large or medium-sized cities, where there are a number of hospitals and many physicians. Others, like Dr. Larry Curtis, are “country” or “rural doctors,” who may be the only physician to serve an entire county of people. Country doctors work in small, rural towns such as Driggs, Idaho, where Dr. Curtis has his medical practice. He says that he enjoys being a country doctor because he feels at home in a small town and thinks of his patients as his friends. Also, he must deal with a wide variety of medical needs, as he explains: “At fall harvest, an injured farmer might not want to travel [to a distant town] for treatment. He might ask, ‘Sew me up quick, doc, so I can get back to work.’”¹

Emergency Doctors

Many doctors have regular office hours and see most of their patients during the daytime. This is not the case, however, with emergency room (ER) doctors. ER doctors see patients at all hours of the day and night. Over 100 million people visit emergency rooms each year, for all kinds of reasons.
ER doctors see patients for everything from broken bones to breathing problems, from food poisoning to pneumonia. In fact, there is no other type of doctor who sees such a variety of medical problems as an ER doctor.
Some hospitals have different types of emergency rooms—for instance, those that fly. The MCG Health System in Augusta, Georgia, has a large emergency room on the ground and a smaller one in the air. The hospital owns a specially equipped helicopter that serves as a flying emergency room. It resembles a miniature hospital ER, and it is staffed with an ER doctor and two other emergency medical professionals. When every second counts because a patient is seriously ill or injured, the three jump in with the pilot and take off in the “flying ER.”

Surgeons

Doctors who perform operations are called surgeons. Years ago almost all surgery was performed by general surgeons. As medicine became more advanced, surgery became more specialized. Today
General surgeons perform many types of common surgeries such as removal of tonsils, appendix, or breast lumps and repairing hernias. However, there are also specialist surgeons who operate only on particular areas of the body.
Plastic surgeons repair body parts that are abnormal in some way, from injury, disease, or birth defects. They also perform “cosmetic” surgery on patients, which is surgery that improves a patient’s appearance.
orthopedic surgeons, operate on bones, joints, muscles, nerves, and tendons;
neurosurgeons (brain surgeons) who operate on the brain and surrounding nerves; and
pediatric surgeons, who perform surgery on children, from newborn babies to teenagers.
Some pediatric surgeons specialize in children’s heart conditions, and are called pediatric heart surgeons. Dr. Tom Karl, of UCSF Children’s Hospital in San Francisco, is a well-known pediatric heart surgeon. During the summer of 2002, Dr. Karl traveled to Nicaragua with a team of health care professionals. While he was there, he and his team performed surgery on twenty children who were born with heart defects.

Many Different Specialties

Pediatricians,  work exclusively with babies, children, and teenagers.
Internists, focus on medicine for adults.
Obstetricians, usually called OB/GYNs, are specialists in women’s health. These are the doctors who take care of pregnant mothers, and who often deliver their babies.
Otolaryngolists are doctors who specialize in problems with the ear, nose, and throat.
Dermatologists diagnose and treat diseases of the skin, hair, and nails. Allergists specialize in treating allergies, as well as immune system disorders such as asthma, hay fever, and breathing problems.
Ophthalmologists diagnose and treat eye diseases, and they perform eye surgery to correct vision problems.
Hematologists specialize in diseases of the blood, such as sickle cell anemia and leukemia. Oncologists specialize in diagnosing and treating cancer.
Anesthesiologists give anesthesia to patients having surgery so the patients do not feel pain during the operation.

Behind-the-Scenes Doctors

Not all doctors are involved in patient care. Instead, some perform functions that support the work of other physicians.
Radiologist, who studies and analyzes pictures taken of the inside of a patient’s body. Radiology is an extremely important field, and it has been around for only about a century. Before that, doctors could only examine the outside of a patient’s body, or examine the internal organs in surgery. Today, sophisticated diagnostic tests such as ultrasounds, X rays, CAT scans, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) allow radiologists to find internal problems before they become life threatening.
Pathologist. Pathologists are often called the “doctor’s doctor,” because they serve as scientific consultants to other physicians. They work in laboratories inside hospitals or at other locations. When doctors order diagnostic tests for their patients—such as blood samples or biopsies—it is the pathologist who analyzes and interprets those tests. Some pathologists specialize in performing examinations, or autopsies, on people who have died. These doctors are called forensic pathologists, and their work helps to determine the cause of death.
Epidemiologists are doctors whose work revolves around medical research. Often called “disease detectives,” these doctors study diseases so they can figure out the cause. Epidemiologists also develop vaccines that prevent disease, as well as medicine to treat it. The work they do is extremely valuable—because of medical research, diseases such as smallpox, diphtheria, polio, and many others can now be prevented with vaccines. In the future, disease detectives may develop vaccines or cures for such serious diseases as cancer and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Someday they may even be able to cure the common cold—­although that disease has continued to stump researchers for decades.
Doctors may work in hospitals or they may work in laboratories. Some analyze blood samples, and others deliver babies. Some doctors work with eight-year-olds, and others work with eighty-year-olds. No matter where they practice or what type of medicine they specialize in, doctors are important. Because of the work they do, people all over the world are able to live longer, healthier lives.