ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTION Public Roles of US Physicians Community Participation, Political Involvement, and Collective Advocacy

FORMANY YEARS, THERE HAS BEENdebate about the degree towhich physicians should as-sume public roles, that is, their degree of social responsibility for ad-dressing health-related matters be-yond providing care to individual pa-tients.1-5 Physician leaders, social commentators, and professional orga-nizations ’ mission statements have of-ten supported the physicians ’ assump-tion of public roles.1-4, 6 These are at odds, however, with some education and practice environments that do not foster physicians ’ engagement with broader public health issues.7,8 Currently, little is known about practicing physicians ’ attitudes about, or the extent to which they participate in community, political, or advocacy activities. A previous attempt to define and operationalize public roles included a 1998 survey of junior family practice physicians who regarded relevant components to be assimilating into the commu-nity and its organizations, identifying and intervening in community health problems, coordinating local com-muni ty hea l th re sources, and responding to particular issues of local cultural representatives when caring for patients.9 Recently,wedefinedphysicians ’ pub-lic roles to be “advocacy for and par-ticipation in improving the aspects of communities that affect the health of individuals.”10 We also identified a range of office-based and out-of-office tasks that may define physicians ’ in-volvement in public roles and that are compatible with busy medical prac-tices. These activities are health-related andmay be undertaken by phy