A Selection of Ethical Recommendations from Romuz-e Azam (19th A.D)

Background and The Physicians have always had the most important role in maintaining health, prevention and treatment of disease. Ethical issues are not new topics in medical field and throughout the centuries, many Physicians have attempted to introduce ethical standards based on either religious beliefs or society routines. Current study represents ethical and scientific issues which have been mentioned in Romuz-e Azam, an ancient manuscript written by an Iranian Muslim physician Hakim Mohammad Azam Khan (19th century AD).
Material and In present study, the characteristics of a competent physician were extracted from the preface of Romuz-e Azam, a pharmacopoeia of traditional medicine, and then the findings were compared with related content according to the standards of conventional medical ethics.
Quotes of Prophet Mohammad and the medical anecdotes narrated by Hippocrates, Plato and Galen were mentioned in this book. Ethical implications were introduced through five chapters: (1) Moral issues that a physician has to follow, (2) essential sciences for a physician, (3) the cases that a physician must strive after the acquisition of knowledge, (4) the issues which a physician has to avoid, (5) how to evaluate a physician. This book suggested the desirable aspects of a physician such as mental, religious, age, inward and outward, communication skills and relations between physicians and their colleagues and patients, neatness and hygiene, encouragement to gaining experience through travels and necessity of awareness about other majors such as logic, astronomy, geometry and music. Also in this book it has been studied how to examine physicians scientifically and ethically, hospital standards requirement, identification of new diseases, getting along with patient complaints, correct prescription of medications, prioritization of passengers treatment .
Ethical outlines have many similarities with the Hippocratic Oath. In addition to valuable historical and the current needs of society, considering the implications of the valuable book Romuz-e Azam about medical ethics and reporting such concepts can be used as a perfect model in medical ethics.