The past few years have presented challenges for those of us in health care – not only fighting a pandemic but resisting a rising tide of public disillusionment with medical experts who sometimes confused speculative guidance for scientific facts, coupled with social media-driven dangerous medical disinformation, all of which threatens to drag science into the bruising arena of political polarization.
Despite those challenges, there has been one constant.
People trust their doctors.
According to the 2024 Edelman Trust Barometer, people trust their personal physician to give them reliable health information more than anyone else – more than government agencies, health company executives, the media, pharmacists, their employers or their friends and family.
This week, our newest students, the ±«Óătv Health Morsani College of Medicine Class of 2028, participated in a milestone that celebrates the beginning of their medical journey. They received their own white coats – a moment of powerful symbolism. A student’s white coat bestows instant authority, respect and trust.
Here is what I told the students:
I ask that you remember that trust today, as you formally don your White Coat. When you wear that coat, people view you as among the most trusted people in society. And with that trust, the White Coat also confers a great obligation — the requirement that its wearer continuously display integrity, intelligence, and humility.
While there is nothing magical about the White Coat, it is rich in symbolic power, drawn from examples of professionalism set over the centuries by your predecessors in medicine, and from a series of four commitments:
First, the White Coat represents a commitment to scientific inquiry, empiricism, and the pursuit of truth. We physicians believe in critical deliberation and intensive, objective examination of evidence. Now more than ever, we must be ambassadors for scientific truth. We learn and grow as physicians by humbly offering our ideas up for criticism, seeking feedback, learning from our mistakes, and incorporating new insights into our practice.
Second, the White Coat represents a commitment to compassion and concern for every patient. Patient care is at the center of all we do. You have chosen a career in medicine because of your desire to help people. And you must never lose sight of this founding motivation. Over your career, you will treat thousands of patients, and work to diagnose innumerable diseases. To help your patients, you will need to not only master the science of medicine, but perfect the art of medicine, an art as old as Hippocrates. A doctor must be first… a person of empathy, kindness and caring. This means being attuned to your patients’ emotions, respectful of their autonomy but knowledgeable of their needs, and always compassionate towards their plight.
Third, the White Coat represents a commitment to lifelong learning and your need to develop grit. You will learn a lot over your time here, but medical knowledge is doubling every 73 days and so you must be prepared to engage in lifelong learning to keep up with the latest diagnostic tests, imaging techniques, devices, drugs, and management paradigms. The physician’s life is a noble one, but it is not an easy one. There will be times when you’re overwhelmed, when you’re frustrated, when you doubt your abilities. These challenges will never abate. They will span your career. But the passion and perseverance, grit and determination that got you here today will see you through, so keep your eyes on the higher purpose you serve.
Of all professions, medicine best fits the ancient Stoic admonition that “True happiness is the full use of your powers, along lines of excellence, in a life-affording scope.” Use those powers to rise to the challenges of medical school. You will emerge stronger for it.
Fourth and finally, the White Coat represents a commitment to community, to giving back to the people who have helped you to achieve so much. I hope you will be touched by a humble sense of gratitude and a desire to give back to your community. As a doctor, high-quality patient care is an important way to give back to your community, but it is not the only way. Your commitment to community should also manifest by donating your time and resources to assist others and giving back to the academic institutions that have served you well – paying it forward, as the great Ohio State running back Archie Griffin put it.
If you hold fast to these four commitments—to scientific inquiry, to compassion, to lifelong learning, and to paying it forward—you will have earned the distinction the white coat conveys and have adhered to the fundamental values it symbolizes.