July 28, 2016
Hello,
This week marks the beginning of a four-year medical school journey for our incoming class – the graduating class of 2020. This class has the distinction of being the first class to experience our new curriculum and also is our first class starting out as McGovern Medical School students. The class also is the first class I will have the pleasure of welcoming as medical school dean.
Tonight is a special occasion for our entering class, the White Coat Ceremony. I’m excited as it’s my first White Coat Ceremony as dean and our first as McGovern Medical School. We are proud to be McGovern Medical School, where our students, residents, alumni, faculty, and staff can carry on the McGovern ideals of excellence, humanism, and compassion.
These values are at the heart of this evening’s White Coat Ceremony, which was established in 1993 by the Arnold P. Gold Foundation. The foundation created the ceremony as a way to welcome medical school students into the medical profession. In addition to donning their white coats for the first time, they also will recite the Hippocratic Oath, reminding them of the sacred promise between caregiver and patient. The gold lapel pin they will receive from the foundation contains an inscription about humanism in medicine – a visual connection to our school’s values.
The White Coat Ceremony is particularly special to me. Dr. Arnold Gold, a pediatric neurologist and founder of the Gold Foundation, was one of the most beloved attending clinicians and teachers at Babies Hospital, where I trained in pediatrics many years ago. I had the good fortune to get to know Dr. Gold during my residency as I watched him consult on children with serious neurologic disorders—some life threatening, many with limited treatment options at the time. By watching Dr. Gold, I learned first-hand the powerful marriage of skilled learned clinician and compassionate heart. When each of our students puts on their white coat for the first time, they are making an implicit promise to become the very best physicians they can be.
This year is also our school’s first year as a member of the Gold Humanism Honor Society, sponsored by the Gold Foundation. This society honors medical students, residents, fellows, teachers, and others who demonstrate excellence in humanistic clinical care, leadership, compassion, and dedication to service.
This evening’s guest speaker, Dr. Francisco Fuentes, is such a person. Dr. Fuentes is a professor of internal medicine and holder of the Theodore R. and Maureen O’Driscoll-Levy Endowed Professorship in Cardiology Research. He is this year’s recipient of the prestigious Leonard Tow Faculty Humanism in Medicine Award sponsored by the Gold Foundation.
I am looking forward to his wise comments—a wonderful way to welcome our new students.
Warm regards,
Barbara
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