Social Change for Doctors - Behaviorism and Ethics
Dr. Courtney Kelleigh is an infectious disease public health specialist or epidemiologist practicing in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
As physicians we are all too often creatures of habit and routine. Our procedures are rehearsed for years, to be performed without the slightest deviation. Our work is good if it is consistent.
This may be a useful belief for the objective practice of medicine as it relates to surgery, medication management, and the like - but it drums out individuality and in many ways dredges advancement and change. As a respected profession, physicians are positioned to advance social issues - but given the nature of the work - few will endeavor to try.
How can we as a physician community participate in the social advancement of the society in which we live, and what issues are worth striving for?
Let us first defer to a physician pioneer for social transformation - Dr Deepak Chopra
“Transformation is different from change [better] . If the thermometer goes up or down, that’s change. When water turns to ice, snow, or steam, that’s transformation." Deepak Chopra MD
As he states, it's not just about making things different for the sake of being different, it's about redefining their nature - to one that is better suited for the present social climate or environment.
The secular ethics of Hippocrates in ‘the art of medicine - de Arte (written 400-375bce)’ guided the first physicians and can still provide wisdom today.
In its text it emphasizes that the Hippocratic physician is aware of being the holder of a true knowledge, an art acquired through scientific training and a long apprenticeship. With that they bear a specific societal responsibility.
“Key to advances in medicine as well as to the growth of nations was a conceptual shift in the perception of the natural world, which would ultimately provide a methodology for therapeutic advances as well as for the building of wealthy, strong nations.” KE Geraghty - Advocacy and Community: the social roles of physicians in the last 1000 years. Pub Med ID: 11104474.
This as it relates to physician responsibility in social issues can be interpreted as justifying advocacy when harm is being done advocacy for the sake of liberating a subset of the population which has been marginalized or disadvantaged by a particular precedent or circumstance.
It is the modus behind physician and non physician special interest groups that already exist as well as those that may emerge. Advocacy is advocacy when it sets someone free and is not conflict for the sake of conflict, which no physician has any business participating in.
We can see the potential impact of mobilizing the healthcare workforce toward social issues as was done by Dr. Elizabeth Levy’s Physicians for Justice as well as Docs4POC in the Black Lives Matter movement. We can see the potential impact of mobilizing the healthcare workforce toward social and health issues as was done nationally during the covid-19 pandemic. This subset of the population holds within it the transformative power to drive health outcomes up or down if unified, and we should not overlook it as an arsenal for change when and if required.
