General internal medicine

Increasing subspecialisation, driven by new knowledge, experience and technology, challenges the relevance of a broad discipline like general internal medicine. However, these same influences are also responsible for the worldwide renaissance of generalism in clinical practice.1 With an ageing population, an increasing prevalence of chronic disease, rising costs of healthcare, greater consumer expectations, and more awareness of the risks and errors of clinical practice, our society needs general internal medicine to provide integrated, cost-effective and high quality specialist medical care. This need is even greater for people with complex, multisystem problems, who account for most acute hospital admissions.