Hospitalists are doctors whose primary professional focus is the general medical care of hospitalized patients.  Their activities include patient care, teaching, research and leadership related to hospital care.  Hospital medicine is a specialty organized around a site of care (the hospital) rather than an organ (like cardiology), a disease (like oncology), or a patient's age (like pediatrics).  However, unlike medical specialists in the emergency department or critical care units, hospitalists help manage patients through the continuum of hospital care.