ID Board Review/General Internal Medicine, Critical Care Medicine and Surgery

While the "General Internal Medicine, Critical Care Medicine and Surgery" section that makes up nearly 1/5th of the ABIM ID Certification exam sounds fairly vague on first glance, it is actually more specific upon closer inspection. For example, most of the general medicine topics are dedicated to infectious disease mimics. Additionally, the Surgical and Critical Care Medicine (CCM) portions are fairly situational, with specific scenarios e.g. a neurosurgery patient who develops meningitis symptoms after a craniotomy, or an ICU patient who was resuscitated after nearly drowning.

General Internal Medicine

• Ethical and legal decision making

Infectious Disease Mimics

• Drug Fever
• Malignancies
• Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis (Hemophagocytic syndrome)
• Noninfectious Inflammatory Disorders
  • Vasculitis
  • Lupus
  • Inflammatory Bowel Disease
• Dermatologic disorders
• Hematologic disorders
• Noninfectious Central Nervous System Disease
• Bites, Stings, and Toxins

Critical Care Medicine (CCM)

• Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia
• Bacterial Pneumonia
• Viral Pneumonia
• Noninfectious Pneumonias
  • Eosinophilic Pneumonia
  • Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS)
• Hyperthermia and Hypothermia
• Near-drowning: Scedosporium apiospermum and Pseudallescheria Boydii Infections

Surgical Infections

• Orthopedic Surgical Infections
• Neurosurgery Surgical Infections
• Ear, Nose, and Throat Surgical Infections
• General Surgery and Intra-abdominal Surgical Infections
• Thoracic and Cardiothoracic Surgical Infections
• Urologic Surgical Infections
• Obstetric and Gynecologic Surgical Infections
• Plastic and Reconstructive Surgical Infections
• Vascular Surgical Infections