Ethics and occupational physicians: Ethics and mission required for occupational physicians

Abstract

The ethics of occupational physicians are considered from the following three viewpoints: (1) their legal standing and ethics in job execution; (2) ethics in research in occupational medicine; and (3) ethics in the 21st century and fundamental issues. We discuss: in (1), the contract types of occupational physicians and their independency and neutrality, the protection of health information and privacy, and the use of authority and the security measures; in (2), ethical standards of medical research in Japanese and international organizations, the significance and role of ethics committees, and issues characteristic of occupational health research; and in (3), occupational physicians and politic ethics, the practical abilities and ethics necessary for occupational physicians, and the practice and philosophy of occupational medicine as an art. These considerations suggest that occupational physicians, who have a special status based on the governmental policy of the occupational physician system, should develop an ethical consciousness at the core of their duties and perform their mission with responsibility to employees and employers, all of whom are Japanese citizens. Finally, we propose that the ultimate mission of occupational physicians is "to practice occupational medicine as a branch of the humanities".