List of medical specialties

A **specialty** is a branch of medical practice. After completing medical school, physicians and surgeons usually further their medical education in a specific specialty of medicine by completing a multiple year residency to become a medical specialist.

## History

To a certain extent, medical practitioners have always specialized. According to Galen, an Ancient Greek physician and surgeon, specialization was common among Roman physicians. The particular system of modern medical specialties evolved gradually during the 19th century. Informal social recognition of medical specialization evolved before the formal legal system. The particular subdivision of the practice of medicine into various specialties varies from country to country and is somewhat arbitrary.

## Classification

Medical specialties can be classified along several axes, including:

* Surgical or internal medicine
* Age range of patients
* Diagnostic or therapeutic
* Organ-based or technique-based

Throughout history, the most important has been the division into surgical and internal medicine specialties. The surgical specialties are the specialties in which an important part of diagnosis and treatment is achieved through major surgical techniques. The internal medicine specialties are the specialties in which the main diagnosis and treatment is never major surgery.

Many specialties are organ-based. Many symptoms and diseases come from a particular organ, while others are based mainly around a set of techniques, such as radiology, which was originally based around X-rays.

The age range of patients seen by any given specialist can be quite variable. Pediatricians can handle most complaints and diseases in children that do not require surgery, and there are several subspecialties in pediatrics that mimic the organ-based specialties in adults.

A further subdivision is the diagnostic versus therapeutic specialties. While the diagnostic process is of great importance in all specialties, some specialists perform mainly or only diagnostic examinations, such as pathology, clinical neurophysiology, and radiology.

## Specialties

* dddAnesthesiology
	+ Algiatry
	+ Cardiothoracic anesthesiology
* Aerospace medicine
* Clinical medicine
	+ Anatomy
	+ Biochemistry
	+ Clinical chemistry
	+ Clinical immunology
	+ Clinical microbiology
	+ Clinical pathology
	+ Embryology
	+ Medical genetics
	+ Medical microbiology
	+ Pharmacology
	+ Toxicology
	+ Transfusiology
* Dentistry
	+ Oral medicine
* Dermatology
	+ Venereology
* Dietetics
* Diving medicine
* Emergency medicine
	+ Disaster medicine
	+ Mass-gathering medicine
	+ Wilderness medicine
* Endocrinology
* General practice
	+ Geriatrics
	+ Hospice and palliative medicine
		- Palliative care
	+ Occupational medicine
	+ Sleep medicine
	+ Sports medicine
* Health informatics
* Intensive care medicine
* Internal medicine
	+ Cardiology
	+ Endocrinology
	+ Gastroenterology
		- Hepatology
	+ Hematology
	+ Hospital medicine
	+ Immunology
	+ Infectious disease
	+ Nephrology
	+ Neurology
		- Behavioral neurology
		- Clinical neurophysiology
		- Geriatric neurology
	+ Oncology
	+ Psychiatry
		- Addiction medicine
		- Child and adolescent psychiatry
		- Forensic psychiatry
		- Geriatric psychiatry
		- Neuropsychiatry
	+ Pulmonology
	+ Rheumatology
	+ Vascular medicine
* Obstetrics and gynecology
	+ Gynecology
		- Gynecologic oncology
	+ Maternal-fetal medicine
	+ Obstetrics
	+ Reproductive medicine
		- Reproductive endocrinology and infertility
		- Sexual medicine
	+ Urogynecology
* Occupational medicine
* Oncology
* Ophthalmology
* Orthodontics
* Pathology
	+ Anatomical pathology
	+ Cytopathology
* Pediatrics
	+ Hebiatrics
	+ Neonatology
* Physiatry
* Podiatry
* Public health
* Radiology
	+ Interventional radiology
	+ Neuroradiology
	+ Nuclear medicine
* Surgery
	+ Cardiothoracic surgery
		- Cardiac surgery
	+ General surgery
		- Colorectal surgery
		- Trauma surgery
	+ Neurosurgery
	+ Oral and maxillofacial surgery
		- Ocular surgery
	+ Orthopedic surgery
	+ Otorhinolaryngology
		- Neurotology
	+ Pediatric surgery
	+ Plastic surgery
		- Craniofacial surgery
		- Hand surgery
	+ Reproductive surgery
	+ Surgical oncology
	+ Urology
		- Andrology
	+ Vascular surgery