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‘[R]adical ideologues would like physicians to view race and ethnicity not as a biological reality but rather as a social construct,’ scholar said of new oath

The University of Connecticut School of Medicine’s class of 2028 recited a new version of the school’s Hippocratic Oath, pledging support for social justice and DEI.

The oath now reads: “I will work actively to identify and mitigate my own biases so as to treat all patients and coworkers with humility and dignity”; “I will strive to promote health equity”; “I will actively support policies that promote social justice and specifically work to dismantle policies that perpetuate inequities, exclusion, discrimination and racism,” Do No Harm reported.

Those involved in drafting the new oath see it as a necessary step toward addressing healthcare disparities. 

Assistant Professor of Medicine Clara Weinstock, who spearheaded the oath’s revision, told The Fix via email that the updated version adopts a more “anti-racist” perspective.

“It’s not a lot itself that’s changing medical education, it’s the commitment of faculty to having an anti-racist, more proactive approach to addressing health-care disparities and addressing historical wrongs committed by the medical profession,” Weinstock said.

The professor enlisted help from various student organizations and committees at UConn to make the revision.

She told The Fix she “reached out to all the faculty and student representatives from various different diversity and ethics related student interest groups across the school of medicine campus … and invited everybody to come together to join a working group to draft a proposal.”

A few of the groups or individuals included the Student National Medical Association, the Latinx Student Medical Association, the South Asian Medical and Dental Association, an LGBTQ group, the Director of Immigrant Health, and the Internal Medicine Diversity Committee.

Weinstock said they held six meetings before a final draft was formed and approved.

“Not everybody on the email list voted, but everybody who did vote voted to adopt this, and a couple people gave some comments, so we did make two changes in response to those comments,” she said.

After the revisions were completed, UConn introduced the new commitments into their official ceremonies.

“All the incoming med students when they’re just starting med school at the white coat ceremony … they’re taking this oath as they’re starting their learning process and these are the ideals and ethics and, code of conduct that we’re going to adhere to and then they do it again at graduation as they finish medical school and kind of go out into the world to practice as doctors in residency training,” Weinstock said.

MORE: Pitt medical students create new Hippocratic Oath to ‘fight racial injustice’

The Hippocratic Oath is a code of ethical standards that medical students swear to uphold during their university introductory ceremonies and graduations.

The school finalized the new oath in 2022 after the state government declared structural and systemic racism a key driver of health disparities.

UConn’s new oath also followed revisions made by other medical schools in 2021.

“Just like many other medical schools, back in 2021 we worked together to expand the Hippocratic oath our medical students take to bring it updated with the current times as they embark on both their medical school journey and its early exposure to patient care experiences, and again as graduating doctors entering the health care workforce,” Health Information Officer Lauren Woods stated in an email to The Fix.

According to Woods and Weinstock, these ideals and ethics are a part of UConn’s aim to end discrimination, racism, social injustice, and healthcare disparities.

However, a medical doctor criticized the oath in comments to The College Fix.

“Casting patients as powerless members of ‘victim groups’ only harms them,” Jared Ross, a senior fellow for medical advocacy group Do No Harm said. “A good physician takes several factors into account when treating patients, politics being nowhere in that equation.”

Ross told The Fix this approach could overlook individuals’ unique needs.

“Excellence in medicine means treating each patient as an individual and by doing what is in their best interest, which includes recognizing heritable and genetic risk factors for certain diseases,” Ross said.

“Instead, the radical ideologues would like physicians to view race and ethnicity not as a biological reality but rather as a social construct. This sentiment moves us away from training future physicians in robust evidence-based medicine and towards a political agenda,” he told The Fix.

Further, Do No Harm staff stated the “DEI-ified” version of the oath “contradict[s] the Hippocratic Oath’s principles by implicitly endorsing racially discriminatory policies that, in practice, preference certain racial groups over others and thus harm unfavored patients.”

MORE: UConn shuts down ‘Politics and Pop Culture’ master’s degree

IMAGE: UConn Health/Youtube

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