BMJ  2003;327:E130 (4 October), doi:10.1136/bmjusa.02080008 (published 9 October 2002)

BMJ USA: Filler

The physician charter on medical professionalism

From BMJ USA 2002;August:469

Warning that "changes in the health care delivery systems in virtually all industrialized countries threaten the very nature and values of medical professionalism," in 1999 the American College of Physicians–American Society of Internal Medicine, American Board of Internal Medicine, and European Federation of Internal Medicine launched the Medical Professionalism Project (www.professionalism.org). Earlier this year the Project released a Charter on Medical Professionalism, which sets out three fundamental principles:

• Principle of primacy of patient welfare
  
• Principle of patient autonomy
  
• Principle of social justice
  

The charter outlines 10 professional responsibilities, which include a commitment to:

 1 Professional competence

 2 Honesty with patients

 3 Patient confidentiality

 4 Maintaining appropriate relations with patients

 5 Improving quality of care

 6 Improving access to care

 7 Just distribution of finite resources

 8 Scientific knowledge

 9 Maintaining trust by managing conflicts of interest

10 Professional responsibilities

Details of what these responsibilities entail are available in the full report (Medical Professionalism in the New Millennium: A Physician Charter. Ann Intern Med. 2002;136:243-246), which is available online at www.annals.org/issues/v136n3/full/200202050-00012.html

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