Professional ethics can often encompass areas regulated by law. This is true of the Korean Medical Association (KMA) code of ethics. Therefore, doctors should consider their legal obligations when complying with medical ethics guidelines. A revision prepared by the KMA committee on medical ethics guidelines contains 5 types of amendments. First, some guidelines deal with areas that are not governed by current legislation. A second set of guidelines clarify the obligation to comply with current legislation by specifying “to the extent permitted by the law”. A third set of guidelines repeat the contents of current legislation almost verbatim. A fourth set of guidelines explain the content of the current legislation in lay language when a chance of misunderstanding is present. Fifth, some guidelines can be interpreted as being in conflict with current legislation. The statement that physicians must consider the content of relevant laws does not mean that they must accept those laws uncritically. At a minimum, doctors should avoid falling into legal difficulties because of legal ignorance. Furthermore, doctors must make efforts to revise relevant laws that are not acceptable from the point of view of medical ethics. If doctors continue this effort, they can maintain their professional dignity. The revision of the medical ethics guidelines is the beginning of this effort. If doctors understand the relationship between medical ethics guidelines and current legislation, it will be easier for doctors to comply with medical ethics guidelines in the clinical setting.
Accidental Falls ; Codes of Ethics ; Ethics, Medical* ; Ethics, Professional ; Jurisprudence*

Professional ethics can often encompass areas regulated by law. This is true of the Korean Medical Association (KMA) code of ethics. Therefore, doctors should consider their legal obligations when complying with medical ethics guidelines. A revision prepared by the KMA committee on medical ethics guidelines contains 5 types of amendments. First, some guidelines deal with areas that are not governed by current legislation. A second set of guidelines clarify the obligation to comply with current legislation by specifying “to the extent permitted by the law”. A third set of guidelines repeat the contents of current legislation almost verbatim. A fourth set of guidelines explain the content of the current legislation in lay language when a chance of misunderstanding is present. Fifth, some guidelines can be interpreted as being in conflict with current legislation. The statement that physicians must consider the content of relevant laws does not mean that they must accept those laws uncritically. At a minimum, doctors should avoid falling into legal difficulties because of legal ignorance. Furthermore, doctors must make efforts to revise relevant laws that are not acceptable from the point of view of medical ethics. If doctors continue this effort, they can maintain their professional dignity. The revision of the medical ethics guidelines is the beginning of this effort. If doctors understand the relationship between medical ethics guidelines and current legislation, it will be easier for doctors to comply with medical ethics guidelines in the clinical setting.
Accidental Falls ; Codes of Ethics ; Ethics, Medical* ; Ethics, Professional ; Jurisprudence*

Medical ethics, autonomy, and self-regulation form the core of medical professionalism. Therefore, codes and guidelines regarding ethics are key documents that demonstrate the identity of physicians as a professional group in a society. In Korea, foreign declarations such as the Hippocratic Oath and the Geneva Declaration have been translated and introduced, while medical ethics guidelines have been introduced from developed countries. In 1961, 1965, and 1979, the Code of Medical Ethics was created and revised, but only in 1997 did Korean doctors develop their own ethics guidelines and codes reflecting their identity in Korean society. In order for these guidelines and codes to be effective living documents, they should be regularly modified to reflect changes in the medical environment and the field of medicine. In response to the urgent need to establish strict norms of medical professionalism in the 21st century due to internal and external problems in Korean society, the Korean Medical Association worked to revise the Ethics Code and Guidelines in 2016. This article reviews the history of how the Korean Code of Ethics and Guidelines has changed and examines the contents of the Code of Ethics and Guidelines as amended in 2016.
Codes of Ethics ; Developed Countries ; Ethics ; Ethics, Medical* ; Hippocratic Oath ; Korea* ; Professionalism ; Self-Control

BACKGROUND: TV dramas can affect the identity of a person or group that the public perceives by presenting virtualized characters and events. The image of a doctor in the medical drama can influence the identity of a contemporary physician group. The authors analyze several medical dramas in Korea from the viewpoint of medical professionalism and try to contribute to the enlightment of the image of the doctor.METHODS: Among the medical dramas that have been broadcast since medical professions began to appear, 5 dramas were selected for analysis. The author reviewed them by four major areas of medical professionalism: contribution to society, compliance with the four principles of medical ethics, professional autonomy, and recognition from society and scored an upper-middle-lower grade.RESULTS: ‘Contribution to society’ and ‘recognition from society’ were well-founded in all dramas, except ‘Doctor Stranger’. In the case of ‘compliance with the four principles of medical ethics’, ‘Golden Time’ and ‘Romantic doctors Kim’ most frequently violated it. The ‘medical ethics principle’ was frequently infringed on ‘Doctor Strangers’, In the case of ‘Doctors’, the violation of the ethics principle was reduced as the conflict between the drama characters were emphasized. ‘Professional autonomy’ is best demonstrated by stubborn doctors appearing in ‘Golden Time’ and ‘Romantic Doctors Kim’.CONCLUSION: It is necessary to criticize the doctors image in the current drama from the view point of the medical professionalism and to continue to teach the drama writer about medical professionalism.
Compliance ; Drama ; Ethics ; Ethics, Medical ; Humans ; Korea ; Professional Autonomy ; Professionalism

Why should physicians be ethical? First of all, it is one of the categorical imperatives (golden rules) to be an ethical person. So as a human being, all physicians should endeavor to be an ethical member of the society. However, there is another important reason for physicians to be ethical, more ethical than any other members of the society. Medicine, the so-called learned profession, is defined by the knowledge held by their members and by the application of that knowledge to the needs of fellow citizens. The relationship between physicians and patients can only be secured when physicians succeed in obtaining trust from the public. Society will accept the professional autonomy and monopoly market power held by the medical organization only if the organization shows continuing effort of self-regulation according to their strict code of ethics. At now, physicians are facing a powerful challenge from the modern society that denies professional authority and stresses independence and self-sufficiency of individual social members. There is a clear tendency that modern society no longer sees medicine as a benevolent help by the paternalistic physicians to the patients in need but as a mere trade between providers and consumers. Any unethical behavior of physicians may justify the intrusion by the third party into the traditional doctor-patient relationship in the name of fair trade. In this sense, ethics of physicians may be the best policy to defend the long tradition of Hippocratic medicine.
Codes of Ethics ; Ethics* ; Humans ; Paternalism ; Professional Autonomy ; Self-Control

Conflicts of interest in medicine has created deep concerns about the integrity of medicine and raised doubts about the trustworthiness of the medical professional. New stories of conflict of interest in medicine have become a commonplace. The interactions between the medical professional and the biomedical device as well as the pharmaceutical industry has become so pervasive that the primary interest of the medical professional in protecting and promoting the welfare of the patient has been compromised. The professional judgement and actions have been influenced by secondary interests, the major fungible and quantifiable being financial interest. The industry influence not only affects the way we practice orthopaedics but also affects medical education and peer review publications. Peer review publications have been shown to exaggerate benefits of the industry products while at the same time downplaying the risks. These conflicts of interest in orthopaedic surgery are particularly common in spinal and joint replacement surgery where joint replacement has been described as a ‘fashion trade’. The introduction of new products appears to be an uncontrolled experiment which has been hijacked by large corporations. This article explores the unhealthy pervasive interaction between the orthopaedic surgeon and the medical devices as well as the pharmaceutical industry. It highlights how the biomedical and the pharmaceutical industry dominate all aspects of the healthcare system. With its wealth and political clout, its influence is present everywhere, from the use of devices and drugs, research, publications, trials, education and even formulation of CGPs.
Ethics, Medical ; Professional Competence ; Professionalism ; Technology, Pharmaceutical ; Delivery of Health Care

Medical professionalism in Korea is underdeveloped because of a strong state that has been in place for the past one hundred years. If the government actively controls policies and regulates the professional associations under state corporatism, deterioration of professionalism is inevitable. The current medical insurance in Korea is unified as a monopsony, but it is not the 'bipartite corporatism' between the government and the medical profession such as the National Health Services (NHS) in Britain. All insurance matters related to a physician's practice, including standards of treatment and the physician's reimbursement, are handled by the government. Therefore, the authority of medical expertise is subordinate to the authority of the government agency, and physicians are forced to follow the goals and policies that are set by the government. Physicians' professional ethics are the core of their occupational control. The declaration of "Codes of Ethics" by the Korean Medical Association, before it was revised in April 2006, defined a "sincere fulfillment in practicing medicine" as a full duty of the physician's life. If this declaration was intended to be interpreted literally, all physicians in Korea could be asked to pursue identical lives with the same goals as their professional life as a physician. If it was not intended to be interpreted literally, then physicians may develop their own ethical approaches according to their individual perspectives on life. The former case is an unethical form of state control while; the latter case would make legitimate occupational regulation impossible. The ideal of medical service is an institutional attribute of an occupation and not a duty of an individual's life. Therefore, it should be possible for physicians to work under an occupational control that requires specific standards for the members of the profession and embodies their professional values.
Codes of Ethics ; Ethics, Professional ; Government Agencies ; Hypogonadism ; Insurance ; Korea ; Mitochondrial Diseases ; National Health Programs ; Occupations ; Ophthalmoplegia

PURPOSE: This study investigated medical students' attitudes toward academic misconduct that occurs in the learning environment during the pre-clinical and clinical periods. METHODS: Third-year medical students from seven medical schools were invited to participate in this study. A total of 337 of the 557 (60.5%) students completed an inventory assessing their attitudes toward academic misconduct. The inventory covered seven factors: scientific misconduct (eight items), irresponsibility in class (six items), disrespectful behavior in patient care (five items), dishonesty in clerkship tasks (four items), free riding on group assignments (four items), irresponsibility during clerkship (two items), and cheating on examinations (one item). RESULTS: Medical students showed a strict attitude toward academic misconduct such as cheating on examinations and disrespectful behavior in patient care, but they showed a less rigorous attitude toward dishonesty in clerkship tasks and irresponsibility in class. There was no difference in students' attitudes toward unprofessional behaviors by gender. The graduate medical school students showed a stricter attitude toward some factors of academic misconduct than the medical college students. This difference was significant for irresponsibility in class, disrespectful behavior in patient care, and free riding on group assignments. CONCLUSION: This study indicates a critical vulnerability in medical students' professionalism toward academic integrity and responsibility. Further study evidence is needed to confirm whether this professionalism lapse is confined only to this population or is pervasive in other medical schools as well.
Ethics ; Humans ; Learning ; Patient Care ; Professional Misconduct ; Professionalism ; Schools, Medical ; Scientific Misconduct ; Students, Medical

No abstract available.
Ethics, Professional*

PURPOSE: This study explores the effects of a professionalism course based on problem-based learning (PBL) for 2nd year dental students on professional role concept and on ethical reasoning. It also investigates students' attitudes toward professionalism development program. METHODS: The experimental group (n=36) participated in the 5-week professionalism course, which uses PBL approach while the control group (n=89) did not receive the professionalism instruction during the same period. The professionalism development program was implemented via discussions among students in small-group tutorial. Four professors, who served as group facilitators participated in faculty seminars before every tutorial. After each tutorial, students had to write essays on the cases they discussed in their groups. Both groups completed Professional Role Orientation Inventory and Defining Issue Test (KDIT) prior to and post intervention period. The experimental group also responded to questionnaires about the value of professionalism program. RESULTS: Analysis of covariance indicated that the experimental group's responsibility score significantly improved (F=32.552, p<0.001) while their perception of agency decreased (F=29.510, p<0.001). The program had little influence on ethical reasoning measured by DIT. Twenty-eight students (78%) responded that they learned the value of other opinions. Seventy percent of the students responded that the course is worthwhile or very worthwhile. CONCLUSION: The result reveals that students' professional role concept is associated with the learning experience in professionalism program based on PBL. Opportunities to think of professionalism in clinical situations improved students' sense of responsibility as dentist.
Dentists ; Education, Dental ; Ethics, Dental ; Humans ; Learning ; Orientation ; Problem-Based Learning ; Professional Competence ; Professional Role ; Students, Dental ; Surveys and Questionnaires