Professionalism in emergency medicine

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.