Health care is always changing, propelled by scientific breakthroughs and technological advancements, and constrained by government regulation and reform. But there is one constant: physicians shoulder the ultimate responsibility for a patient's care whether it be in the emergency room, on the operating table or in a clinic. Since the days of Hippocrates, doctors held the fate of their fellow human beings in their hands – and certainly in their hearts.

That's why we pause on Doctors' Day each year to thank the men and women who decided to travel down that long road to becoming a physician. We at Temple Health-Chestnut Hill Hospital are grateful for the more than 300 physicians who work in our hospitals, offices and clinics.

We celebrate and honor their commitment to their field, their patients and their community. Be it a primary care doctor fresh out of residency, or a veteran surgeon who continues to hone skills by adopting the latest technology, we are grateful to all our physicians for their skill and professionalism.

It is so easy to marvel at the almost miraculous life-saving tools that medicine employs. And just as easy to become frustrated when chronic disease, terminal illness and horrific accidents win the battle over the doctor's most advanced skills and interventions.

We must not forget that the physician – the healer, the comforter, the saver of lives – is human. The same doctor who triumphantly makes a revelatory diagnosis in a perplexing case may have to deliver a grim prognosis to the patient and his family.

The pediatrician who treats a severely injured or ill child has to go home to tuck in her own little ones. The longtime family doctor who watches a patient's health gradually progress from a vibrant and active lifestyle to an aging, weakened state may face the same situation with his own elderly parent.

And so on Doctors' Day, we take time to thank newcomer and veteran, primary care and specialist – for their devotion to improving the lives of our patients at Temple Health-Chestnut Hill Hospital.

We acknowledge their lives outside the hospital and we realize that their chosen career path often makes it difficult to separate the two worlds. We thank the emergency room physicians and hospitalists for the personal sacrifices they make by staffing our facilities on weekends and holidays. We are grateful to those doctors who answer emergency calls from our hospital staff and patients while out for dinner with their spouses or during a child's birthday party.

The physicians and their teams of health care professionals who are part of the Temple Health-Chestnut Hill Hospital family provide our community with outstanding medical care.

We are fortunate to have these men and women. Today we acknowledge their contributions, sacrifices, skills and unwavering concern for our community.