The Impaired Physician

The Oath of Hippocrates, administered to generations of physicians as they embark on their profession, begins: "I will look upon him who shall have taught me this art even as one of my parents. I will share my substance with him, and I will supply his necessities, if he be in need. " Despite that solemn promise, we have too often ignored or neglected the physician in trouble. Even if we could put aside the human concerns of one physician for an impaired colleague (can our profession truly permit that?), we must concede that our society can ill afford it. This book, which has been assembled and edited by Stephen C. Scheiber and Brian B. Doyle, may be a lifesaver for the doctor in trouble and will be a health- saver for the population of our country. A land which decried the lack of physicians a quarter century ago and spent the vast resources to double the number of graduates in medicine, cannot permit a tenth of all doctors to be out of commission. That would be a large, and for the most part preventable, addition to the cost of health care in America. In this book, Scheiber and Doyle have gathered the expertise of many psychiatrists who are knowledgeable about the impaired physi- cian.