General internal medicine

Internal medicine deals with prevention, diagnosis and non-surgical treatment of all organs of the human body and their respective systems; it returns a comprehensive assessment of the patient.

What we treat

Common medical conditions (e.g., pneumonia, influenza).
Framing and management of complex clinical pictures (e.g., more complex conditions that may affect other medical specialties, clinical pictures with several diseases).
Prevention: check-up of overall health status to prevent a disease.

The internist examination provides a comprehensive framing of a person's health status (both physical and psychological), whether healthy or ill.

Diagnosis and treatment

Diagnosis

The diagnosis is outlined following a thorough outpatient examination that includes:

Anamnesis: the patient is asked a whole series of questions with the aim of gathering useful information to understand his habits (e.g., diet, alcohol consumption, smoking habits, physical activity, special situations such as chronic fatigue, etc.) and define his clinical picture.
Analysis of symptoms reported by the patient.
General medical examination: through which to identify normality or abnormalities in the body parts investigated.
Assessment of the patient's physical and psychological aspects.

Treatments

Based on the diagnosis, the internist proceeds with:

Prescribing drug therapy (including multiple drugs to treat different conditions).
Prescription of further diagnostic investigations and possible tests: e.g., laboratory tests (e.g., blood sampling) or instrumental investigations (e.g., CT scan, colonoscopy, etc.).
Referral (if necessary) to the most appropriate specialist in the field.

Patient services

Support services

Musculoskeletal rehabilitation

It deals with degenerative, traumatic, and post-surgical pathological conditions affecting the musculoskeletal system and has as its main goal the recovery of the patient's motor, functional, and social abilities.

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Internist-oncology rehabilitation

Rehabilitation is a key aspect of the care pathway for both the cancer patient and the complex, polymorbid patient in a stage of physical weakening caused by internist disorders.

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Pulmonary rehabilitation

It is specifically aimed at patients with chronic lower respiratory tract disease who have problems following lung disease and/or thoracic surgery.

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Geriatric rehabilitation

Rehabilitation is defined as geriatric when the focus of care is the elderly person, regardless of his or her illness. The goal is not only to treat the clinical problems of the elderly person, but also to give consistent responses to the psychological and social ones, while respecting the life plan of the patient himself and that of his family members.

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Dedicated services

Family medicine

The Family Medicine service offers an innovative response to the health needs of the local area. Indeed, its goal is to enhance and strengthen primary care medicine by improving its integration and synergy with hospital services, university education and research. The service's clinical division is based in Lugano at the Ospedale Italiano, where it replaces and expands the first aid offerings by integrating with the Civic Hospital's emergency room.

Contact

Medical Point

Medical Point is defined as the general internal medicine outpatient clinic integrated with the CMU (Consultorio medicina di urgenza), which allows patients with internal medicine problems to be taken care of either by appointment or urgently (bagatelle cases only).

DETAILS

Doctors

Dr. med.

Balestra Brenno

Medico aggiunto, Direttore medico di Dipartimento

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Dr. med.

Allegranza Giuseppe

Primario

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Prof. Dr. med.

Arrigo Mattia

Primario

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PD Dr.ssa med.

Fusi-Schmidhauser Tanja

Primario

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Contact

Ambulatorio Long Covid

Ospedale Regionale di Locarno, La Carità

Orari di risposta al telefono
Monday : 08:00 - 11:45 / 14:00 - 16:45
Tuesday : 08:00 - 11:45 / 14:00 - 16:45
Wednesday : 08:00 - 11:45 / 14:00 - 16:45
Thursday : 08:00 - 11:45 / 14:00 - 16:45
Friday : 08:00 - 11:45 / 14:00 - 16:45
Chiusura dell’ambulatorio
Monday
Tuesday afternoon
Thursday
Friday afternoon
Saturday
Sunday

Ambulatorio di Medicina di famiglia

Ospedale Regionale di Lugano, Italiano

Aperto tutti i giorni dalle 10.00 alle 18.00.

Orari di risposta al telefono
Monday : 10:00 - 18:00
Tuesday : 10:00 - 18:00
Wednesday : 10:00 - 18:00
Thursday : 10:00 - 18:00
Friday : 10:00 - 18:00
Saturday : 10:00 - 18:00
Sunday : 10:00 - 18:00

Ambulatorio di Medicina interna generale

Ospedale Regionale di Bellinzona, Acquarossa

Orari di risposta al telefono
Monday : 09:00 - 11:00 / 13:30 - 16:00
Tuesday : 09:00 - 11:00 / 13:30 - 16:00
Wednesday : 09:00 - 11:00 / 13:30 - 16:00
Thursday : 09:00 - 11:00 / 13:30 - 16:00
Friday : 09:00 - 11:00 / 13:30 - 16:00
Chiusura dell’ambulatorio
Saturday
Sunday

Ambulatorio di Medicina interna generale

Ospedale Regionale di Mendrisio, Beata Vergine

Ambulatorio Dr. Balestra

Orari di risposta al telefono
Monday : 13:30 - 16:30 / 08:30 - 12:00
Tuesday : 13:30 - 16:30 / 08:30 - 12:00
Wednesday : 13:30 - 16:30 / 08:30 - 12:00
Thursday : 13:30 - 16:30 / 08:30 - 12:00
Friday : 08:30 - 12:00 / 13:30 - 16:.30

Ambulatorio di Medicina interna generale

Ospedale Regionale di Mendrisio, Beata Vergine

Ambulatorio Dr. Giannini

Orari di risposta al telefono
Monday : 08:30 - 12:00 / 13:30 - 16:30
Tuesday : 08:30 - 12:00 / 13:30 - 16:30
Wednesday : 08:30 - 12:00 / 13:30 - 16:30
Thursday : 08:30 - 12:00 / 13:30 - 16:30
Friday : 08:30 - 12:00 / 13:30 - 16:30

Punto Medico

Ospedale Regionale di Mendrisio, Beata Vergine

Orari di risposta al telefono
Monday : 08:30 - 12:00 / 13:30 - 16:30
Tuesday : 08:30 - 12:00 / 13:30 - 16:30
Wednesday : 08:30 - 12:00 / 13:30 - 16:30
Thursday : 08:30 - 12:00 / 13:30 - 16:30
Friday : 08:30 - 12:00 / 13:30 - 16:30
Saturday : 09:00 - 14:00
Chiusura dell’ambulatorio
Sunday

Locations

General internal medicine activities are carried out at all EOC hospital sites.

Ospedale Regionale di

Patients

Medical specialties

Hospitals and Institutes

Professionals and Research

General internal medicine

What we treat