Moral compass guides soul of medicine

AMA Leader Commentary. By J. Edward Hill, MD, Dec. 19, 2005.

AMA LEADER COMMENTARY

A few words about current events in medical practice

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A message to all physicians from the president of the American Medical Association, J. Edward Hill, MD.

In addressing the American Medical Association's Annual Meeting last June, I told of a time when my father, my brother and I spent a very cold, very wet, very sleepless night in the swampland near my home in central Mississippi. And how, seeking the higher ground, we found not only safety and comfort, but also found a renewed confidence in the leadership, integrity and love of my father and his trusty compass.

I said that we, the American Medical Association, with a trusty moral compass, could solve our many daunting problems. We can find the higher ground, the moral high ground, not only in advocating on behalf of our patients but in literally all that we do.

From that strong position, we can lead America in the right direction, restoring a balance to the AMA in all that it does, renewing and enhancing the very soul of medicine.

Weeks would pass, and the truth of those observations came back to me as I volunteered back home in Tupelo, helping care for the evacuees -- patients streaming north to escape the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. We all worked together at the center the Red Cross set up in our local Tupelo Coliseum -- doctors, nurses, pharmacists, aides, citizens, all volunteered, without being asked.

Through it all, the one thing that touched me the most -- the thing that stands out so dramatically for me -- was the total, complete and universal gratitude of every single patient we saw.

It was amazing.