Differences in perceptions about medical professionalism between Japanese and U.S. physicians / 医学教育

ABSTRACT

Recent changes in the relationship between physicians and society has affected the values and ethics of physicians, and a“Physician Charter”on medical professionalism has been drafted by the American Board of Internal Medicine Foundation, the American College of Physicians-American Society of Internal Medicine Foundation, and the European Federation of Internal Medicine.We conducted this survey to determine whether the“Physician Charter”can be used to examine the medical professionalism of Japanese physicians.<BR>1) A questionnaire to examine the perceptions of physicians in Japan and the United States of the responsibilities of the “Physician Charter” was distributed.<BR>2) In both countries 30% of physicians understood the contents of the “Physician Charter, ”and 60% believed the charter should be used in every country.<BR>3) The physicians in the United States tended to consider most responsibilities more urgent than did Japanese physicians, and the perceptions of several responsibilities differed between physicians in the two countries.A generation gap among Japanese physicians was observed for some responsibilities.