The President's Program at the 2000 Annual Clinical Meeting of ACOG address
ed the question of how best to maintain professional values in the current,
market-driven health care environment. The author's presentation during th
at presidential program provided the basis of this article. In today's corp
orate environment, the distinction between the practice of medicine and the
business of medicine has become blurred, Too often, market values prevail
over traditional professional values. As a consequence, physicians face inc
reasing challenges and frustrations. To ease the discomfort of practicing i
n a new corporate age, physicians must maintain medical professionalism and
hence reassert the primacy of professional values in caring for patients.
Individually, physicians must exercise professionalism in their roles as ed
ucators and practitioners. Collectively, the profession of medicine must ex
ercise professionalism by advocating patients' interests and by accepting a
ccountability for both long-established and emerging obligations that physi
cians have to their patients and to society. (C) 2001 by the American Colle
ge of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.