Published in 2002, the Charter on Professionalism was crafted to address concerns regarding potential erosion of professional ethical underpinnings see more throughout the industrialized

world by the growing healthcare corporate models. Comprehensive and detailed, the principles and commitments of the Charter on Professionalism provide important ethical guidelines for physicians in a shifting, challenging healthcare environment progressively dominated by corporate rules. The International Charter for Human Values in Healthcare fundamentally endorses the Charter on Professionalism through its independently, internationally derived set of five fundamental categories of values and subvalues within each. Indeed the similarity of the values and subvalues of the International Charter to the principles and commitments of the Charter on Professionalism lend credence to both. We see both charters as complimentary and fundamental to

healthcare. The International Charter for Human Values in Healthcare adds perspectives that complement the Charter on Professionalism in several ways. First, the International Charter specifically addresses GSK J4 the importance of values in therapeutic relationships and the care all healthcare clinicians give their patients, thus responding to the evolving interprofessional, team-based nature of care in today’s environment. Second, the International Charter addresses the crucial Erlotinib nature of values in team and colleague relationships, recognizing that the quality of interprofessional relationships within the care team has a powerful effect on the quality of the physician–patient and other clinician–patient relationships and on the outcomes of care. Third, the International Charter was created from the input of numerous groups, forums, organizations, and individuals worldwide and is intentionally broadly global, in recognition that the values we identified are likely core human values, not a reflection of western concepts or beliefs of a particular group, culture or

belief system. Finally, and perhaps most important, the International Charter purposefully addresses the essential, fundamental role of skilled communication in the demonstration of values and, in doing so, emphasizes the connection between values and communication skills. The International Charter thus provides a unique lens to refocus on core values that are fundamental to optimal healthcare, as well as the essential role of communication skills in achieving this outcome. The intrinsic relationship between skilled communication and explicit attention to expression of human values in all healthcare interactions may seem obvious, though the requirement for the demonstration of capacity for both values and communication skills needs to be articulated.