About Professionalism

Today’s definition of medical professionalism is evolving  – from autonomy to accountability, from expert opinion to evidence-based medicine, and from self-interest to teamwork and shared responsibility. 

For many, medical professionalism is the "heart and soul of medicine." More than the adherence to a set of medical ethics, it is the daily expression of what originally attracted them to the field of medicine – a desire to help people and to help society as a whole by providing quality health care. But many physicians today experience profound obstacles to fulfilling the ideals of medical professionalism in practice.

This website, and our work, is dedicated to exploring how physician leaders, health care organizations and public policy can foster medical professionalism as a means to improve health care.  Learn more and tell us what you think via the following resources:

• Read the contemporary definition of medical professionalism
• Tell us how you define medical professionalism
• Read about how public policy and organizational reform strategies can support professionalism
• View a complete bibliography of recent literature on medical professionalism
  
• View a visual depiction of the words physicians most associate with medical professionalism:
  
   
  

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