MSTP Code of Ethics

To become responsible physicians by:

• Becoming effective listeners in order to understand the patient’s perspective.
• Encouraging the exchange of knowledge with colleagues, patients, and the community.
• Gaining a deeper understanding of the cultural and socioeconomic context through which each patient is experiencing their illness in order to appropriately respond to their needs and prevent injustice.
• Respecting patient autonomy, privacy, and confidentiality.
• Embracing the principles of respect for persons, beneficence, and justice.
• Learning to advocate for patient and public health by providing broadly representative, evidence-based guidance to governing bodies.
• Learning to work effectively, respectfully, and supportively with an interdisciplinary health care team.
• Upholding high standards of conduct, such that we will not tolerate and will actively prevent inappropriate or discriminatory behavior towards anyone on the basis of ancestry, race, gender, sex, sexual orientation, beliefs, socioeconomic status, or differing cognitive or physical abilities.
• Using the scientific method in our clinical problem solving, and modeling best practices of evidence-based medicine, particularly inclusion of broadly representative groups of patients.
• Striving for excellence in both the humanistic and scientific elements of medicine.
• Adhering to the highest ethical standards in providing compassionate clinical care.

• Educating ourselves about systemic racism and all systemic inequities, and working to address and dismantle these structures through our policies and research/medical practices.

To become responsible scientists/researchers by:

• Becoming intimately familiar with the literature, so as to advance knowledge and scholarship.
• Developing a deeper understanding of the scientific process, to allow critical analysis of our own studies and research outside our field.
• Adhering to accepted standards of data representation and promoting the reproducibility of our work by sharing information, resources, and expertise.
• Giving credit to those who have contributed to the acquisition and dissemination of new knowledge.
• Promoting mentoring, education, and career development of our trainees and colleagues.
• Respecting the lives and being personally responsible for the humane care of animals and reducing the numbers of animals used in research.
• Respecting and informing local/institutional (e.g. IRB, IBC, IACUC) and national (e.g. NIH, CDC, FDA) regulatory guidance.¹
• Conducting clinical studies in compliance with the principles of Helsinki and Belmont and in compliance with the Institutional Review Board.
• Adhering to the highest ethical standards and ensuring diversity, equity, and inclusion in all scientific endeavors.

To excel as future physician scientists by:

• Using our skills to bridge gaps between basic science, translational science, and clinical medicine with the goal of advancing patient care and improving outcomes.
• Developing the skills and experience for successful collaboration with both clinicians and scientists, by promoting respect and understanding between fields.
• Becoming communicators of ideas between science and medicine, in order to bridge the gaps that exist between these two in areas of policy, implementation, and investigation.
• Respecting our peers as they pursue these goals through diverse endeavors. 

¹ IRB, Institutional Review Board; IBC, Institutional Biosafety Committee; IACUC, Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee; NIH, National Institutes of Health; CDC, Centers for Disease Control; FDA, Food and Drug Administration.