The Impact of the Hippocratic Oath in 2018: The Conflict of the Ideal of the Physician, the Knowledgeable Humanitarian, Versus the Corporate Medical Allegiance to Financial Models Contributes to Burnout

The tradition in medical school includes taking the Hippocratic Oath usually at graduation. The purpose of this review is to examine what that oath has been, what forms it currently has, and the implications for physicians in today’s healthcare environment. The changes in health economics affect physicians as they try to follow the oath’s allegiance to the individual patient’s needs. At times, this goal conflicts with the perspective of the financial world’s controls of insurance companies and medical groups and institutions. This difference of the physicians’ ethical perspectives from the business leaders regarding the philosophy of the value of the individual’s health and life may be related to some aspect of physician burnout.