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Primer on Medical Professionalism

Joseph A. Diaz, MD ^* and Michael J. Stamp, AB 

^* Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island and Brown Medical School, Pawtucket, RI.
Brown University Center for Primary Care and Prevention, Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island, Pawtucket, RI.

Corresponding author: Joseph A. Diaz, MD, Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island, 111 Brewster St, Pawtucket, RI 02860.

Abstract

Medicine as a profession depends on a unique social contract between the public and health-care professionals. We define professionalism in medicine, provide examples of challenges in professionalism relevant to podiatric medicine, and offer resources on ethics and professionalism in medicine. "Medical professionalism" is the set of attitudes, values, and conduct exhibited by medical providers resulting from placing patients’ and society’s interests above their own. The primacy of patient welfare has been at the core of a set of values held by medical professionals since the drafting of the Hippocratic Oath, and it remains at the center of medical professionalism today. (J Am Podiatr Med Assoc 94(2): 206-209, 2004)