John D. Yoon, MD is Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Chicago. Dr. Yoon has been with the Program on Medicine and Religion since its inception in 2009. He is an academic hospitalist, clinical ethicist, and medical educator with research interests in the fields of virtue ethics, moral psychology, and character development and professional formation in medical education. He was a co-investigator on the Project on the Good Physician, a longitudinal study of medical students funded by the New Science of Virtues Project at the University of Chicago. He maintains a faculty affiliation with the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics, Center for Health and the Social Sciences (CHeSS), and the Bucksbaum Institute for Clinical Excellence. His area of scholarship has addressed professional identity formation of physicians, physician well-being, and the role of religion/spirituality in shaping the moral and professional formation of physicians-in-training. Dr. Yoon has been deeply involved in generating new educational initiatives at the University that promote the study of Religion, Ethics, and Medicine to Medical Students, Divinity Students, undergraduates in the College, and other residents and trainees in health care.
Dr. Yoon’s long-term vision for the Program is to establish a new field of Medical Education Chaplaincy ultimately through the development of a Chaplain Scholars Training Program. These “medical education” chaplains would be trained to provide spiritual care and cultivate the whole-person flourishing of clinicians in health care who are training to care for others, particularly in light of the existential challenges of clinician burnout and moral distress in the midst of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. He is in the process of being ordained as a minister and Spiritual Director to practicing clinicians, students, and resident trainees in health care. Toward that end, Dr. Yoon has completed a four-year certificate program of study and Internship in Spiritual Direction in the Ignatian Tradition (Society of Jesus, Jesuits Midwest Province).
For those in health care who are interested in exploring sessions of Spiritual Direction on matters related to vocational discernment, medicine-as-a-calling, well-being and human flourishing in the practice of medicine, Dr. Yoon may be contacted for an initial consultation at: jdyoon@uchicago.edu.
Dr. Yoon will be on academic sabbatical in 2025-2026.
The University of Chicago
Chicago, IL
- MERITS Fellowship in Medical Education
2011
The University of Chicago
Chicago, IL
- MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics Fellowship
2010
The University of Chicago
Chicago, IL
- Internal Medicine Residency
2008
University ot Texas Southwestern
Dallas, TX
MD - Medicine
2005
Stanford University
Palo Alto, CA
BA/BS - History / Biological Sciences
1998
Developing the Good Physician: The Influence of Role Models in the Development of Virtues and Flourishing in Medical Students.
Developing the Good Physician: The Influence of Role Models in the Development of Virtues and Flourishing in Medical Students. South Med J. 2025 Mar; 118(3):141-149.
PMID: 40031760
The Enhancing Life Research Laboratory: Tools for Addressing Orientational Distress in the Medical Profession.
The Enhancing Life Research Laboratory: Tools for Addressing Orientational Distress in the Medical Profession. Acad Med. 2023 06 01; 98(6S):S9-S14.
PMID: 36811970
The Emmaus Project: Aging, Illness, and Dying Among Older Christians-A Qualitative Study.
The Emmaus Project: Aging, Illness, and Dying Among Older Christians-A Qualitative Study. Linacre Q. 2023 Aug; 90(3):320-332.
PMID: 37841375
Sustaining the Intrinsic Motivations of the "Good Physician": A Content Analysis of Medical Students' and Physicians' Responses from Two National Surveys.
Sustaining the Intrinsic Motivations of the "Good Physician": A Content Analysis of Medical Students' and Physicians' Responses from Two National Surveys. South Med J. 2022 10; 115(10):727-733.
PMID: 36191907
Moral Elevation, Physician Role Models, and Selected Markers of Professional Identity Formation and Well-Being: A Secondary Analysis from Two National Surveys.
Moral Elevation, Physician Role Models, and Selected Markers of Professional Identity Formation and Well-Being: A Secondary Analysis from Two National Surveys. South Med J. 2022 02; 115(2):129-135.
PMID: 35118502
Association of Intrinsic Motivating Factors and Joy in Practice: A National Physician Survey.
Association of Intrinsic Motivating Factors and Joy in Practice: A National Physician Survey. South Med J. 2021 09; 114(9):583-590.
PMID: 34480191
"Can virtue be taught?": a content analysis of medical students' opinions of the professional and ethical challenges to their professional identity formation.
"Can virtue be taught?": a content analysis of medical students' opinions of the professional and ethical challenges to their professional identity formation. BMC Med Educ. 2020 Oct 22; 20(1):380.
PMID: 33092593
Moral Controversy and Working with Colleagues with a Shared Ethical/Moral Outlook: A National Survey of US Primary Care Physicians.
Moral Controversy and Working with Colleagues with a Shared Ethical/Moral Outlook: A National Survey of US Primary Care Physicians. South Med J. 2019 08; 112(8):457-461.
PMID: 31375845
Predictors of Empathic Compassion: Do Spirituality, Religion, and Calling Matter?
Predictors of Empathic Compassion: Do Spirituality, Religion, and Calling Matter? South Med J. 2019 06; 112(6):320-324.
PMID: 31158886
Demographic and Practice Characteristics of Physicians Who Care for Medically Underserved People: A National Survey.
Demographic and Practice Characteristics of Physicians Who Care for Medically Underserved People: A National Survey. South Med J. 2018 12; 111(12):763-766.
PMID: 30512131