Medical Specializations: Get to know them here

The study of human body and its health is extensive as if we count every cell in the body which is why there are many medical specialties that are responsible for treating different ailments or organs.

If you want to study, or are studying, medicine in the EIAThis article will interest you a lot because we will talk about some paths that you could take after finishing your degree.

What are medical specialties?

Medical specializations are the studies that can be carried out after finishing the degree as a postgraduate, but which have the main characteristics of being:

• Practical: these are studies that are carried out, for the most part, in a hospital or clinic with real patients and not so much in the classroom.
• Specialized: Each specialization in medicine studies a specific area of ​​the human being, has specific surgical techniques or has unique diagnostic methods.
• Differentiated: These studies separate their study population and the device or system they study, so that a specialist in one thing may not be an expert in another.
• Interconnected: All medical specialty studies are related and mutually necessary to offer patients comprehensive care that comprehensively and objectively studies their disease or illness.

Medical specializations generally last between 2 and 4 years, although this varies depending on what it is and the country where it is carried out.

After the specializations, students can continue studying. For this, they can choose to do a subspecialty (Fellowship, with its name in English) or a master's degree.

Types of medical specialties

There are many specialties in medicine because there are many ways to approach the study of the body. For this reason, three ways of classifying the specialties have been understood: according to the place where it is practiced, according to the orientation and the classic classification of the specialties, which is: surgical, clinical, medical-surgical and laboratory.

Classification according to place of professional practice

• Hospital: here are all the specialties that are studied after finishing the degree in Medicine.
• Primary care: This is where doctors caring for patients in primary hospitals, health centers or clinics are found, who have not done postgraduate study. They are called GPs.

Classification based on orientation

• Age groups, such as pediatrics.
• The apparatuses or systems of the human body, such as pulmonology.
• The organs, such as ophthalmology.
• Diagnostic techniques such as radiology.
• Therapeutic and rehabilitative techniques, such as surgery.
• Specific diseases, such as psychiatry.
• Human activities, such as sports medicine.

Traditional classification of medical specialties

• Clinics: These are those that take care of patients in a preventive manner, always with diagnostic and therapeutic activities, but without surgical techniques. Here you will find pediatrics, cardiology, gerontology and endocrinology.
• Surgical: are those that require invasive means to cure the diseases they face. Here you will find surgery, plastic surgery and pediatric surgery.
• Medical-surgical: These are those that usually use both invasive (surgical) and non-invasive techniques (drugs and therapies). Here is gynecology and ophthalmology.
• Laboratory: they are those who support all the other doctors because they make diagnoses or suggest treatments. Here are immunology, radiology and pharmacology.

List of medical specialties in Colombia

What specialties could an EIA medical graduate choose from? Here we tell you all the options that exist in Colombia right now:

• Clinical allergy
• Anesthesiology and resuscitation
• General surgery
• Plastic Surgery: Reconstructive and Aesthetic
• Dermatology
• Gynecology and Obstetrics
• Sports Medicine and Physical Activity
• Emergency medicine
• Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
• Internal Medicine
• Neurosurgery
• Neurology
• Ophthalmology
• Orthopedics and Traumatology
• Otolaryngology
• Pathology
• Pediatrics
• Psychiatry
• Radiology
• clinical toxicology
• Urology
• Clinical cardiology
• Head and neck surgery
• Transplant surgery
• Oncological surgery
• Pediatric surgery
• Vascular surgery
• Clinical endocrinology and metabolism
• Pediatric endocrinology
• Infectious diseases
• Hematology
• Hemodynamics and peripheral vascular interventional cardiology
• Clinical hepatology
• Critical medicine and intensive care
• pain medicine
• Vascular Medicine
• Nephrology
• pediatric nephrology
• neonatology
• Child neurology
• neuroradiology
• Psychiatry
• Pediatric psychiatry
• Radiology in trauma and emergencies
• Interventional radiology
• Rheumatology

Most common medical specialties

Internal Medicine

Doctors who study internal medicine are called internists and are in charge of studying and treating all the organs that exist within the body. Many of them, after completing their specialization, carry out a second study to choose only one organ, such as cardiology or gastroenterology.

Endocrinology

It is a subspecialty of internal medicine that treats the endocrine system, which is made up of glands throughout the body. Therefore, these specialists always study and treat hormones.

Pediatrics

This is the specialty that takes care of children and adolescents. Pediatricians often subspecialize to focus on just one system, organ, or disease in this population group.

Gynecology and Obstetrics

Gynecology is a clinical specialty that takes care of women's health, while obstetrics is the care of pregnant women and childbirth.

Psychiatry

She deals with mental health and treats emotional and behavioral problems through many therapeutic and diagnostic techniques.

Cardiology

This is one of the subspecialties of internal medicine, which focuses on the care and treatment of the heart and blood vessels (veins and arteries).

Dermatology

Dermatology studies the skin, hair, nails and mucous membranes.

Nephrology

This is another of the subspecialties of internal medicine, which is responsible for the care and treatment of the kidneys and nephrons, which are the specialized cells of that organ.

Ophthalmology

In ophthalmology the focus is on the eyes. An ophthalmologist is not the same thing as an optometrist, as the latter does not have a medical degree.

Otolaryngology

This specialty treats the ear, nose and throat.

Neurology

Here is the study of the brain, spine and nerves.

Radiology

Radiology is the science of acquiring and interpreting multiple types of diagnostic images, such as X-rays, CT scans, or MRIs, to help other specialists.