Editing Physician (section)

===Specialist in internal medicine===
{{Main|Internal medicine}}
Around the world, the term physician refers to a [[Medical specialist|specialist]] in [[internal medicine]] or one of its many sub-specialties (especially as opposed to a specialist in [[surgery]]). This meaning of physician conveys a sense of expertise in treatment by drugs or medications, rather than by the procedures of [[surgeon]]s.<ref name="Fowler">{{cite book |author=H.W. Fowler |title=A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (Wordsworth Collection) |publisher=NTC/Contemporary Publishing Company |year=1994 |isbn=1-85326-318-4 |url=https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofmo00fowl }}</ref>

This term is at least nine hundred years old in English: physicians and surgeons were once members of separate professions, and traditionally were rivals. The ''[[Shorter Oxford English Dictionary]]'', third edition, gives a [[Middle English]] quotation making this contrast, from as early as 1400: "O Lord, whi is it so greet difference betwixe a cirugian and a physician."<ref name="newSOED"/>

[[Henry VIII of England|Henry&nbsp;VIII]] granted a charter to the London [[Royal College of Physicians]] in 1518. It was not until 1540 that he granted the [[Barber surgeon|Company of Barber-Surgeons]] (ancestor of the [[Royal College of Surgeons]]) its separate charter. In the same year, the English monarch established the [[Regius Professor of Physic (Cambridge)|Regius Professorship of Physic]] at the [[University of Cambridge]].<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.medschl.cam.ac.uk/about/history.html | title = University of Cambridge: History of the School of Clinical Medicine | publisher = [[University of Cambridge]] | access-date =  5 February 2008 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121209023135/http://www.medschl.cam.ac.uk/about/history.html | archive-date = 9 December 2012}}</ref> Newer universities would probably describe such an academic as a professor of [[internal medicine]]. Hence, in the 16th century, ''physic'' meant roughly what internal medicine does now.

Currently, a specialist [[physician in the United States]] may be described as an ''internist''. Another term, ''[[hospitalist]]'', was introduced in 1996,<ref>{{cite journal |author=Wachter R|author2=Goldman L |title=The emerging role of "hospitalists" in the American health care system |journal=N Engl J Med |volume=335 |issue=7 |pages=514–7 |year=1996 |pmid=8672160 |doi=10.1056/NEJM199608153350713}}</ref> to describe US specialists in [[internal medicine]] who work largely or exclusively in hospitals. Such 'hospitalists' now make up about 19% of all US ''general internists'',<ref>{{cite journal |title=Growth in the care of older patients by hospitalists in the United States|journal=N Engl J Med |volume=360 |issue=11 |pages=1102–1112 |year=2009|quote=See also editorial by Hamel M. B. ''et al''. on pp1141–1143 of same issue |doi=10.1056/NEJMsa0802381 |pmc=2977939 |pmid=19279342 |last1=Kuo |first1=YF |last2=Sharma |first2=G |last3=Freeman |first3=JL |last4=Goodwin |first4=JS}}</ref> who are often called ''general physicians'' in [[Commonwealth of nations|Commonwealth]] countries.

This original use, as distinct from surgeon, is common in most of the world including the [[United Kingdom]] and other Commonwealth countries (such as [[Australia]], [[Bangladesh]], [[India]], [[New Zealand]], [[Pakistan]], [[South Africa]], [[Sri Lanka]], and [[Zimbabwe]]), as well as in places as diverse as [[Brazil]], [[Hong Kong]], [[Indonesia]], [[Japan]], [[Republic of Ireland|Ireland]], and [[Taiwan]]. In such places, the more general English terms ''doctor'' or ''medical practitioner'' are prevalent, describing any practitioner of medicine (whom an American would likely call a physician, in the broad sense).<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.racp.edu.au/index.cfm?objectid=49EF1EB5-2A57-5487-D74DBAFBAE9143A3
|title=The Royal Australasian College of Physicians: What are Physicians?
|access-date=5 February 2008
|publisher=[[Royal Australasian College of Physicians]]
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080306053048/http://www.racp.edu.au/index.cfm?objectid=49EF1EB5-2A57-5487-D74DBAFBAE9143A3
|archive-date=6 March 2008
|url-status=dead}}</ref> In Commonwealth countries, specialist [[pediatrics|pediatricians]] and [[geriatrics|geriatricians]] are also described as specialist physicians who have sub-specialized by age of patient rather than by [[Organ (anatomy)|organ]] system.