The 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence is a good time to reflect on our Founding Fathers’ view of medicine as inseparable from civic responsibility. This historical perspective revisits the outsized role physicians played in America’s founding. Five of the Declaration’s 56 signatories were physicians, including the legendary Benjamin Rush, whose influence spanned medicine, military leadership, abolitionism, and revolutionary politics. Physician representation in Congress has steadily declined since, from 4.7% during the nation’s first century to approximately 1% throughout much of the modern era, despite the growing complexity and prominence of health policy. | Podolsky, N Engl J Med 2026
