Columbia University College Of Physicians & Surgeons Celebrates 10th Anniversary Of White Coat Ceremony
| WHEN & WHERE: | Friday, Aug. 22, 2003
12:30 p.m., Alumni Auditorium Black Building 650 West 168th Street New York, NY |
| WHAT: | Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons (P&S) will welcome the Class of 2007 at the 10th anniversary of the Arnold P. Gold Foundation White Coat Ceremony, an annual rite of passage for doctors-to-be to pledge a commitment to the compassionate practice of medicine and recite the Hippocratic oath for the first time before family, friends, and faculty. This event – at which each student is cloaked with his or her first white coat – was initiated at P&S in 1993. It has since become tradition at more than 130 schools of medicine and osteopathy throughout the United States, at Israel’s four medical schools, and in other countries.
This year’s ceremony is dedicated to the late Russ Berrie, a philanthropist whose generosity helped develop a new standard of care for the 1.6 million diabetes sufferers in the New York metropolitan area. In memory of his mother, Mr. Berrie established The Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center at Columbia-Presbyterian in July 1997. The center takes to heart the humanistic principles of the White Coat Ceremony by combining unprecedented family-oriented patient care and education with world-class diabetes research programs. Mr. Berrie used to lecture to medical students about the importance of doctors caring for their patients in a warm, compassionate manner and was a frequent participant in the White Coat ceremony, cloaking first-year P&S students to bring them into the profession. |
| WHO: | Gerald D. Fischbach, M.D., executive vice president for Health and Biomedical Sciences; dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons
Arnold P. Gold, M.D., professor of clinical neurology and clinical pediatrics, Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons, founder and president of The Arnold P. Gold Foundation, a public foundation dedicated to creating innovative medical educational programs that foster humanism in medicine Jordan J. Cohen, M.D., president, Association of American Medical Colleges |
| PHOTO OPS: | Faculty and administrators cloaking students in white coats, students wearing the white coat, students reciting the Hippocratic Oath |
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