About
The Hippocratic Society is a community of medical students and practitioners together seeking to live up to their healing profession.
Our mission
Forming and sustaining clinicians in the practice and pursuit of good medicine.
Renewal starts within
In a technological age, moral formation is more important than ever. We focus on cultivating virtues that characterize good medical practitioners.
Good medicine requires good judgement
Medicine is more than providing services. We seek to discern and do what good medicine requires, thereby fulfilling our healing profession.
Good medicine is its own reward
Corporatization and bureaucracy have led to a crisis of medical morale. We embrace medicine as a sacred profession, and we help medical practitioners to flourish in serving their patient's genuine good.
Methods
The Hippocratic Society carries out its mission in two primary ways.
Moral and professional training
The Hippocratic Society promotes the moral and professional formation of its members. Through study, dialogue, and apprenticeship, participants train their attention on exemplars of virtues such as courage, generosity, and sincerity, while they practice cultivating such virtues in themselves. In dialogue with seminal texts from the arts and humanities, they contemplate the nature of the human person and of human health, learning to orient and integrate the use of medical science and technology.
Serious and open discourse
The Society also sponsors fair, serious, and open discourse about the most important questions facing medical practitioners in our time. Against the tendency to ignore or suppress disagreement and dissent, The Hippocratic Society promotes public dialogue about difficult questions, confident that by reasoning together medical practitioners can discern better how to serve our patients and fulfill our profession. Meanwhile, we affirm that to maintain solidarity with and merit the trust of those made vulnerable by illness and injury, medical professionals must practice with integrity. Accordingly, we oppose policies that pressure practitioners to set aside or act contrary to their conscientious clinical judgment.
T he Hippocratic Society will offer a compelling alternative to the de–moralized status quo of contemporary medicine. We will equip and support the next generation of those seeking to fulfill their healing profession.
If we succeed, by 2035 every major academic medical center will have an active chapter of the Hippocratic Society. A dense network of senior clinicians will serve as mentors to trainees, and a parallel network of clinician chapters will support practitioners across the United States and beyond.
The success of the Society will be measured not only by the number of chapters created or Symposia held, but even more so by the character and flourishing of its students and practitioners. HippSoc members will be recognized by their peers and patients alike as exemplars of the medical profession—as trustworthy healers characterized by knowledge and skill, wisdom and compassion, courage and integrity.
Timeline
An Idea Emerged
A number of physicians consider forming an association to recover and renew the commitment to medicine as a healing practice: precursor to Society for Just Medicine.
An Idea Emerged
A number of physicians consider forming an association to recover and renew the commitment to medicine as a healing practice: precursor to Society for Just Medicine.
Forum Founded with Grant
Hippocratic Forum started through a grant from Foundation for Excellence in Higher Education and inspired by the methodology of OptimalWork. Podcasts launched, and initial group of medical trainees start meeting online.
Forum Founded with Grant
Hippocratic Forum started through a grant from Foundation for Excellence in Higher Education and inspired by the methodology of OptimalWork. Podcasts launched, and initial group of medical trainees start meeting online.
Undergrad Seminar Launched
Hippocratic Forum officially launched an undergraduate pre-medical seminar at Abigail Adams Institute. Podcast episodes released on all major platforms.
Undergrad Seminar Launched
Hippocratic Forum officially launched an undergraduate pre-medical seminar at Abigail Adams Institute. Podcast episodes released on all major platforms.
First Chapter Launched at Wash U.
With support of TalentED, gatherings held to refine ideas of the organization Society for Just Medicine, which was launched later that year. Hippocratic Forum medical chapter started at Washington University Saint Louis Medical School.
First Chapter Launched at Wash U.
With support of TalentED, gatherings held to refine ideas of the organization Society for Just Medicine, which was launched later that year. Hippocratic Forum medical chapter started at Washington University Saint Louis Medical School.
Hippocratic Society Merger
Decision to merge Society for Just Medicine and Hippocratic Forum into the Hippocratic Society. First undergraduate pre-med chapter started at University of Dallas, and medical school-based chapter started at Harvard Medical School.
Hippocratic Society Merger
Decision to merge Society for Just Medicine and Hippocratic Forum into the Hippocratic Society. First undergraduate pre-med chapter started at University of Dallas, and medical school-based chapter started at Harvard Medical School.
New Chapters, Podcast Launched
Launched new medical school chapters, including Yale, UT Tyler, and UT Southwestern. Launched The Hippocratic Society Podcast for members and affiliates to engage interviews and discussion about the questions and practices essential to good medicine
New Chapters, Podcast Launched
Launched new medical school chapters, including Yale, UT Tyler, and UT Southwestern. Launched The Hippocratic Society Podcast for members and affiliates to engage interviews and discussion about the questions and practices essential to good medicine
First Annual HippSoc Conference
With 21 chapters, the Society hosts its first annual conference in Dallas, TX, drawing over 70 chapter leaders and members from across the country.
First Annual HippSoc Conference
With 21 chapters, the Society hosts its first annual conference in Dallas, TX, drawing over 70 chapter leaders and members from across the country.
The Hippocratic Review
HippSoc launches its first online publication, The Hippocratic Review, the scholarly hub for the community of medical students and practitioners together seeking to live up to our healing profession.
The Hippocratic Review
HippSoc launches its first online publication, The Hippocratic Review, the scholarly hub for the community of medical students and practitioners together seeking to live up to our healing profession.