title: Professionalism in emergency medicine.
abstract: At its root, medical professionalism is service delivered according to patient's interest. It is essential to reinforce this notion because financial pressures threaten the integrity of the patient-physician relationship. Excessive commercialism directly contrasts the ideals of medical professionalism. This fact necessitates re-examination and reaffirmation of professional behavior. If historical standards of professionalism give way to market-driven incentives, the provision of medical care will become a commodity and the practitioners will be only agents of service delivery. Such a model not only threatens the the physician's identity, but also threatens the patient's interests. Medicine can never succeed as a transaction; it can only succeed as a partnership, a trusting exchange with patients, which is the hallmark of professionalism.
authors.affiliation: Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Finkel
authors.forename: J G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Adams
mesh_terms: D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D004635:Emergency Medicine / Q000458:organization & administration*; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D018166:Health Care Reform / Q000458:organization & administration; D006801:Humans; D008389:Marketing of Health Services; D017146:Models, Organizational; D010344:Patient Advocacy; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011361:Professional Competence; D014481:United States