Physicians call for a GenAI oath in healthcare

Glenna Crooks, PhD and Paul Hambly, EVP of Supply at Toluna

AI is transforming industries across the board, and healthcare is no exception. This is the eighth in a series of articles reviewing physicians’ perspectives on GenAI. This article reveals the depth of physicians’ belief in the power of medical oaths and uncovers a profound trust gap that hits at the essence of what it means to be engaged in a healing enterprise.

A proposal for a GenAI oath

An oath for GenAI in healthcare aligns with traditional medical oaths, which date back to the Hippocratic Oath from the fifth century BCE. The fundamental elements include:

Sacred witness. “I swear by all I hold dear and sacred, and in the presence of those assembled here.”
Continuous improvement. “To commit to lifelong learning, sharing knowledge with others, and improving the standards by which my profession operates.
Patient-centeredness: “To ensure my personal and organizational interests and financial gains do not eclipse the care of my patients.”
Collaboration. “To encourage those in my care, their clinicians, and others engaged in healthcare to appropriately use the tools I build and use.”
Human oversight. “To be always mindful that healing is a human enterprise, and humans must be informed, aware, and in control of each step.”
Accountability. “If I keep this oath faithfully, may I enjoy my life and work and always be respected. If I violate this oath, may the reverse be my lot.”

wo healthcare professionals standing together in support of the GenAI Oath, symbolizing physician commitment to ethical and responsible use of generative AI in healthcare.

Physicians support taking a GenAI oath

When asked if they would take an oath concerning the use of GenAI, 73% said that physicians should, and 77% said that physicians would. Among the 25% who would decline, the majority (86%) would do so because they viewed it as redundant and merely symbolic. The remaining physicians had liability concerns (8%), disagreed with how the responsibilities were framed (3%), distrusted GenAI or its governance (2%), or said that it was not relevant to their role (1%).

Physicians support oath-taking by other ecosystem players

Physicians want others in healthcare to make similar oath-type commitments. When asked which players should take the oath, they named:

GenAI platform developers (74%)
Insurance Company Reviewers (67%)
Hospital Administrators (66%)
Professional Healthcare Societies (66%)
Nurses (59%)
Pharmacists (58%)

Healthcare/Life Science Company staff (58%)
Clinical Research Scientists (57%)
Marketing/Advertising Agencies (52%)
Payers/MCOs, and (51%)
Venture Funds and Investors (51%)

Why is this important?

The answer lies in understanding healthcare as what one physician called “a sacred endeavor.” For over 2,000 years, medicine has evolved intentionally slowly: from Hippocratic observations to evidence-based clinical trials. This conservative approach exists because a physician’s job requires moral conduct and accountability, as described in medical oaths.

Technology, in contrast, operates on a “move fast and break things” ethos that prioritizes rapid iteration and acceptable failure rates. This philosophy works in most industries. But in healthcare, “breaking things” can mean harming people.

Our survey data shows physicians understand this cultural collision:

75% worry GenAI is “built to be fast and convincing, not cautious and accurate.”
80% are concerned about AI’s “black box” nature, making accountability difficult.
75% fear patient data will “leak” into training datasets and be impossible to remove.

What physicians want

The survey reveals that physicians aren’t anti-technology; they’re pro-accountability. They want partners who understand that entering healthcare means entering a healing tradition that predates recorded history.

Endnote:

As part of our “AI Everywhere” strategy, Toluna is committed to helping organizations navigate the opportunities and responsibilities that AI brings with it. We partnered with Glenna Crooks, PhD, a recognized policy strategist in global healthcare, to engage over 2,000 physicians on their views of generative AI.[1]

Using Curizon, Toluna’s proprietary panel of healthcare professionals, we explored perceived benefits and risks of AI in healthcare, accountability in the event of harm, and the need for ethical guidelines. The research also examined the advisability of a GenAI Oath modeled after traditional oaths taken by healthcare professionals.

[1]This survey was scripted and programmed by Toluna and fielded in February 2026 with 2,739 healthcare professionals in Toluna’s proprietary healthcare panel Curizon. Survey author: Perso