title: International perspectives on general internal medicine and the case for "globalization" of a discipline.
abstract: General internal medicine (GIM) has flourished in the United States (U.S.). Unlike other subspecialties of internal medicine, however, GIM's evolution has not been global in scope, but rather appears to have occurred in isolation within countries. Here, we describe international models of GIM from Canada, Switzerland, Australia/New Zealand, Argentina, and Japan, and compare these with the U.S. model. There are notable differences in the typical clinical roles assumed by General Internists across these 7 countries, but also important overlap in clinical and academic domains. Despite this overlap, there has been a relative lack of contact among General Internists from these and other countries at a truly international GIM meeting; the time is now for increased international exchange and the "globalization" of GIM.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, and the Centre for Health and Policy Studies, Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada. wghali@ucalgary.ca
authors.forename: William A
authors.initials: WA
authors.lastname: Ghali
authors.forename: Peter B
authors.initials: PB
authors.lastname: Greenberg
authors.forename: Raul
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mejia
authors.forename: Junji
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Otaki
authors.forename: Jacques
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cornuz
mesh_terms: D003695:Delivery of Health Care; D004501:Education, Medical; D006801:Humans; D007388:Internal Medicine / Q000193:education* / Q000379:methods*; D038622:Internationality