Med­ical spe­cial­ty: Gen­er­al medi­cine

General medicine is a medical specialty that involves home medical care and basic care for people with physical and mental illnesses. These include disease prevention, early diagnosis, rehabilitation, health advice and care of acute and chronic diseases.


If a patient has complaints, the general practitioner (GP) is often the one who provides an initial diagnosis as well as an initial consultation or treatment.
Moreover, the GP often decides, which specialist can give the best treatment to the patient in case he/she has a more complicated disease and needs special care and a referral to another doctor.
The interdisciplinary co-ordination and involvement is thus one of the main tasks of general practitioners.

The most common treatment areas of general medicine include the following diseases:

  • Arterial hypertension
  • Chronic heart failure
  • Diabetes mellitus (type 1, type 2)
  • Uncharacteristic fever
  • Cough
  • Tonsillitis acuta (angina)
  • Vomiting and / or diarrhea
  • Dizziness
  • Stomach problems
  • Acute / chronic bronchitis
  • Precordial pain

The training to become a GP takes, in general, 60 months after medical studies, and includes a basic training in the area of internal medicine. Contents of training are health counseling, early detection and prevention of health disorders, addiction prevention, follow-up care and carrying out rehabilitative measures.