Joseph Bisignano, DVM is a board-certified veterinary internist working with the Metropolitan Animal Speciality Hospital in Los Angeles as the department head of internal medicine. He earned his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree at the Western University of Health Science in Pomona, California, and completed an intensive rotating internship in medicine and surgery followed by a residency in Small Animal Internal Medicine. As an internist, Joseph Bisignano, DVM treats animals with internal diseases like kidney and autoimmune diseases.
In veterinary medicine, primary care veterinarians and internists help treat different health conditions of animals. However, they are significantly different in that the former focuses on treating minor health conditions relating to the skin, eyes, teeth, ear, and bones, while the latter diagnoses and treats internal diseases that affect the internal organs like the digestive, immune, endocrine, urinary and respiratory systems. An internal medicine specialist has the knowledge and access to advanced diagnostics such as ultrasound, CT scan, MRI, endoscopy and can perform minimally invasive procedures for diagnostics and biopsies.
In addition, the process of becoming a veterinary internist is much more complex than that of primary care veterinarians. For example, one can become a primary care veterinarian by completing undergraduate training and four years of veterinary school. Becoming a board-certified internist, however, requires the same process plus an additional one-year internship, three years of internal medicine residency, and additional, more rigorous board examinations. There is also a requirement for published research and authoring papers in order to be considered a boarded specialist.
