Is it time for physicians to have a new Hippocratic Oath?
Physicians have so many new tools at their disposal? We have graduated from the written medical record to electronic medical records, stethoscopes, reflex hammers, percussion, and many tools using just our eyes, ears, tactical senses to echocardiograms, imaging and even artificial intelligence.
It is time to modernize our oath, however ehtics must remain unchanged. Just as in the past economic conderns and limitations are not the purvue of treating physicians. We have witnessed the impact of manged care, medicare regulations and other regulatory agencies, quality assurance and other metrics.
These additions have served to restrict what we advise our patients, who remain under our care. Governemtn agencies and health insurance companies serve their own interests, usually financial in nature. Physicians must still set the ultimate goal, caring for our patients. Ethical concerns are not to be trivialized, or influenced by economic concerns. Ethics guard patient welfare. When laws and prefered practice patterns harm patients it is time for us to speak.
Bertalan Mesko, M.D. and Brennan Spiegel M.D. published "A Revised Hippocratic Oath for the Era of Digital Health", in the online Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR)"
"Physicians have been taking the Hippocratic Oath for centuries. The Oath contains a set of ethical rules designed to guide physicians through their profession; it articulates a set of true north principles that govern the practice of medicine. The Hippocratic Oath has undergone several revisions, most notably in 1948 by the World Medical Association. However, in an era of rapid change in medicine, we believe it is time to update the Oath with modest but meaningful additions so that it optimally reflects 21st century health care. The rise of digital health has dramatically changed the practice of medicine in a way that could not have been easily predicted at the time Hippocrates outlined his ethical principles of medicine. Digital health is a broad term that encompasses use of digital devices and platforms, including electronic health records, patient-provider portals, mobile health apps, wearable biosensors, artificial intelligence, social media platforms, and medical extended reality, to improve the process and outcomes of health care delivery. These technologies have driven a cultural transformation in the delivery of care. We offer modest suggestions to help prompt discussion and contemplation about the current Oath and its relevancy to our changing times. Our suggestions are not meant to be a definitive set of final recommendations. Rather, we propose new text that bodies such as the World Medical Association might consider integrating into an updated Oath, just as previous changes were adopted to ensure the Oath remains relevant and impactful for all physicians and their patients."
Keywords
hippocratic oath; digital health (273); eHealth (408); future (2); automation (5); ethics (20); viewpoint; medical perspective; physician perspective; ethical (2); digital divide (22); artificial intelligence (146); moral
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