Pitt medical students pen Hippocratic oath with emphasis on diversity, racial injustice

This year’s demands for social justice and the health care challenges brought on by the covid pandemic have prompted students at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine to create their own version of the Hippocratic oath, the ethical code doctors take to act in patients’ interest.

The Hippocratic oath dates to the 5th century B.C. Summed up in the popular imagination as “first, do no harm,” the oath has been updated through the ages. This year, issues such as the pandemic and the social unrest throughout the nation forced medical students to grapple with problems that have been pushed aside for generations, said Dr. Utibe Essien, assistant professor of Medicine at Pitt and core investigator for the Center of Equity Research and Promotion.

“This is a moment unlike any other, not only because many of their classes are on Zoom right now, but also because this country has shifted its attention to health and equity that it never has done before,” Essien said.

Along with the traditional Hippocratic oath, members of the class of 2024 recited their new version during the White Coat Ceremony on Aug. 16.

“As the entering class of 2020, we start our medical journey amid the covid-19 pandemic and a national civil rights movement reinvigorated by the killings of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery. We honor the 700,000+ lives lost to covid-19, despite the sacrifices of health care workers,” the oath reads.

In the oath, the future doctors say they recognize “the fundamental failings of our health care and political systems in serving vulnerable communities” and commit themselves to “repairing the injustices against those historically ignored and abused in medicine.”

The oath is just one piece of a larger movement toward recognizing the importance of equity and social justice in health care, Essien said.

“I think this year has really driven into focus the social inequities that our health systems have always had with the covid-19 pandemic, which really exposed our health system’s inequities,” Essien said, noting that social justice has been emphasized with recent events including the death of George Floyd.

The Pitt students who penned the updated oath are joining an international movement toward recognizing these systemic problems, Essien said. He said these themes are becoming increasingly prevalent in education, research and patient care and he’s encouraged to see health systems begin examining matters like housing and food security. He noted that some institutions are creating new positions meant to oversee issues of equity.

Essien said he hopes to see messages about social justice and health equity turn into investments in the community and increased attention for these problems in education and health care practices.

Young students, like those at Pitt, are paving the way, Essien said.

“My word of hope would be that this generation of students is pushing a generation of faculty to make a change. That faculty change is also resulting in a change in the way we treat patients,” Essien said. “I thought it was a sign of hope for the future generation that students aren’t going to settle for business as usual.”

In the oath, the students pledged to champion diversity, advocate for equitable health care systems, restore trust between the health care community and the people they serve, and be allies to the BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ communities and other underserved populations.

“We believe that our oath acknowledges the context of U.S. history and medicine, and uses it to explain our current state,” first-year medical student Tito Onyekweli said. “We used the past and present to clarify our future goals as physicians.”

“In making this oath, I embrace the ever-changing responsibilities of being a physician and pledge to uphold the integrity of the profession in the clinic and beyond,” the oath says.

Each future class at Pitt’s School of Medicine will write its own original oath during orientation week.