First-Year Medical Students to Receive White Coats

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WHO:       Approximately 60 first-year students entering the Mercer University School of Medicine.

WHAT:    Will participate in the School of Medicine’s White Coat Ceremony, where they will be “cloaked” in their first white coats and get their first lesson in compassion. Henry E. Young, Ph.D., professor of anatomy and adjunct professor of pediatrics, will deliver the keynote address. Young is an internationally-recognized authority in the field of adult stem cells, and during his tenure at Mercer University School of Medicine he has discovered adult germ layer lineage mesodermal stem cells, adult epiblast-like stem cells, and adult blastomere-like stem cells. The latter two types of adult stem cells will form any cell type in the body. He and his collaborators are currently exploring the use of these adult-derived stem cells for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease, myocardial infarction, type-I diabetes, and chemotherapy-induced infertility.

WHEN:      Sunday, Aug. 13, 3 p.m.

WHERE:    University Center Arena, University Center Drive, Macon, Ga.

WHY:        Although compassion has always played a significant role in patient care, it has traditionally not been a formal part of medical school curriculum. Through the White Coat Ceremony, Mercer School of Medicine helps to clarify for the incoming students the true meaning of humanism in medicine—that as physicians they should not only strive to cure their patients, but to care for them.

In addition to the white coats the students will receive during the ceremony, each will be given pins inscribed with the words “humanism in medicine” from the Arnold P. Gold Foundation and copies of the book On Doctoring provided by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Media interested in covering the event should contact Nancy Fullbright at 478-301-2716.

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