Internal Medicine

The course has the objective to give students the ability to collect patient's medical history (history taking), to perform a physical examination of adults and elder elderly, of both sexes, to discuss the main diagnostic issues and to propose the more common therapies.
Presentation, symptoms, signs, diagnosis (with differential), prevention and treatment of the main clinical syndromes of the following organ and systems are discussed:
- heart and cardiovascular system,
- lung,
- gastrointestinal system,
- kidney,
- endocrinology and diabetes mellitus,
- blood,
- main neoplasms,
- immune system, connective tissue and joints,
- some infectious diseases, such as mononucleosis, viral hepatitis, infective endocarditis.
Pluripathology and frailty is considered.
The main therapies are presented, including corticosteroid therapy and first level antibiotic therapies.
There is a special focus on specific aspects of clinical presentation, diagnosis, prevention and therapy.
The course has also the objective to give the student the ability to critically evaluate laboratory tests and imaging studies.
The course will also cover the fundamentals of working as a general practitioner, with a focus on prescribing skills and the writing of medical certificates.
The student acquires the relational abilities that are needed when speaking with parents.

At the end of the course the student is supposed to be able to make diagnostic hypotheses for the most important diseases of each different system, to know the differential diagnosis, the diagnostic procedures, including laboratory diagnosis and imaging, to propose therapies.
Lastly, the student is expected to know how to write prescriptions and medical certificates.