The Hippocratic Society carries out its programs at local chapters across the country. Each of these communities is composed of physicians, students, trainees, and faculty of the local academic or medical institutions. Local chapters primarily host two activities: Hippocratic Fora (dinner discussions) and Hippocratic Symposia (public speaker events). Additionally, HippSoc National holds a conference annually to bring together community members from across our chapters for fellowship, discussion, and formation.
In all these activities, Society members seek, in friendship, to discern and fulfill what their profession requires. This involves honing the virtue of prudence (good clinical judgment), the mother or “charioteer” of all virtues. Read on to find out more.
Hippocratic Fora
Hippocratic Fora are the foundational practice for local chapters to promote the moral and professional formation of medical practitioners from pre-medical students to practicing clinicians. On a monthly basis, chapters come together over a shared meal to discuss one of the topics in our curriculum [link to curriculum]. These regular meetings in a familiar setting build the relationships that are so foundational to the moral community of medicine.
Pre-medical Chapters Through readings and facilitated discussions, pre-medical students investigate the essential ideas at stake in the practice of medicine: its subject, object, end, and consequences. Led by a physician and a philosopher, pre-medical students reckon with the questions that they will face, at least implicitly, in their medical training and career.
Medical Chapters Our medical chapters meet regularly to study, reason together, and pursue their integral development as persons and healers. Through dinner discussions focused on clinical cases, participants explore and cultivate the virtues essential to becoming a good clinician and they reckon with the important questions, including ethical questions, that confront medical practitioners in our time. Our medical chapter bring together individuals from across the ladder of medical training and remain open to all health professionals.
Hippocratic Symposia
Hippocratic Symposia are public events in which speakers address questions related to the challenges of becoming and remaining a good medical practitioner and discerning what good medicine requires. Each of our chapters typically hosts one or two Hippocratic Symposia each year. We maintain a network of speakers familiar to HippSoc [link to speaker list] to sustain a culture of charitable and serious open dialogue. Topics include questions about the purposes and limits of medicine, the proper character of the clinician-patient relationship, and whether different controversial practices are consistent with the profession to heal, among others. Where appropriate, recordings of lectures are disseminated via The Hippocratic Society Podcast.
The Annual Hipporcatice Society Conference
The Hippocratic Society Conference is a national gathering of Society members focused on concentrated learning, community development, and sharing best practices. Like the Symposia, the Conferences host dialogue regarding the future of medicine, formation of medical trainees, professionalism in medicine, and current debates in the profession. The Conferences also foster friendships among trainees and between trainees and more senior practitioners, facilitating trainees’ personal and professional development. Conference recordings are typically disseminated via our Youtube and/or The Hippocratic Society Podcast. Our 2027 conference will be hosted in Boston, MA during the weekend of June 4-6. See this link for more information.
