The Lancet 2002; 359: 520-22 February 9, 2002
CHARTER ON MEDICAL PROFESSIONALISM
Excerpt:
“Commitment to improving access to care”
“Medical professionalism demands that the objective of all health-care systems be the availability of a uniform and adequate standard of care. Physicians must individually and collectively strive to reduce barriers to equitable health care. Within each system, the physician should work to eliminate barriers to access based on education, laws, finances, geography, and social discrimination. A commitment to equity entails the promotion of public health and preventive medicine, as well as public advocacy on the part of each physician, without concern for the self-interest of the physician or the profession.”
Comment: This Charter, which has been labeled “the modern update of the Hippocratic Oath,” was prepared by representatives of the European Federation of Internal Medicine, the American College of Physicians -American Society of Internal Medicine Foundation, and the American Board of Internal Medicine Foundation. It is a call to physicians to reaffirm their active dedication to principles of professionalism.
Professionalism dictates that physicians must strive to eliminate barriers to equitable health care. In the United States, our flawed health care financing creates the greatest barrier to care. It is imperative that we enact reform that eliminates financial barriers thereby providing a system in which other inequities can be more readily addressed. It is not a choice between supporting the self-interests of the business of medicine and the professionalism implicit in supporting health care equity, but rather it is placing professionalism first and then tailoring the business of medicine to fulfill the ideals of the profession.