gold humanism honor society essay

An official website of the United States government

The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

• Publications
• Account settings

Preview improvements coming to the PMC website in October 2024. Learn More or Try it out now .

• Advanced Search
• Journal List
• Hawaii J Med Public Health
• v.76(9); 2017 Sep

Gold Humanism Honor Society Application Essay - On Humanist Medicine

Humanism is the perspective through which I understand my desire to help others feel secure as persons, while under duress, in otherwise dehumanizing circumstances. It is an outlook regarding medicine, rather than a skill set within it; a set of priorities that refocus care around the patient as an individual, beyond the scope of their immediate medical predicament.

The practice of medicine is rife with de-humanization, from issues of autonomy to concepts of wellbeing in general. In most cases, expedience and limitations of circumstance set the priorities of care. When emergent treatment allows for only superficially informed consent, or when time constraints and language barriers force a patient to accept a care plan without adequate understanding, human connection is sacrificed for systematic efficiency. Whatever its origin, however ubiquitous its practice or beneficent its intent, this failure to fully engage as humans can only degrade the basis of trust underlying the patient-physician interaction.

In this regard, the hospital experience stands out. From admission to discharge, the inpatient experience immerses the patient in a rigid and alien culture of medicine. The routines of daily life are disrupted, the social order and environment unknown, forcing a patient to abruptly reconstruct their own identity within the bounds of illness. A patient's hospitalization risks becoming an existential threat, and demands they reshape their sense of self in response to pathology they may neither understand nor accept.

Throughout my brief time on rotations this year, I've met many patients grappling with this phenomenon. Across ages, genders, cultures; these people find themselves stranded in illness, unable to explain exactly how they came to be here in the care of strangers, awaiting some vague and jargon-shrouded cure. Some react with anger, others with resignation, some small few with relief, but most share a sense of frustration at their inability to alter their own state of affairs.

With most of these patients, I—as a medical student—can do very little to influence their care plan, or shift the course of their physical illness. Rounding on my patients, recording their complaints and physical findings, generally serves a useful but minimal role in their routine care. In many cases, the protections that buffer me from liability wind up insulating me from meaningful patient care. As frustrating as these limitations can be, they provide me with an environment of otherwise stunning potential for interpersonal empowerment.

If my role as a medical student renders me impotent as a practitioner, it leaves me all the more empowered as a human actor within the healthcare system. I am uniquely entrusted with access into the lives of those undergoing profound stress, which allows me to address gaps in care and barriers to meaningful communication that might otherwise be invisible to healthcare providers. The most useful I've felt has been in simply talking story with my patients and their families, encouraging them to remember and engage with their lives, to set goals and priorities beyond the walls of their hospital room.

These conversations, these moments of semi-contrived normalcy, do not relate to the treatment of physical illness per se . They represent an effort in parallel with treatment, with complementary goals. Acting to empower a patient's sense of autonomy or self-value does not serve toward curing a pathology, but functions to aid a patient's transition away from a perspective of illness. This psychological transition, however abstract, is absolutely essential to the individual healing process. This focus on the subject, the patient, rather than the science of medicine, is Humanism at work.

Gold Humanism Honor Society: Resources

Resources at lamar soutter library.

Essays and Articles

• 2023 Hope Babette Tang Humanism in Healthcare Essay Contest: Second-Place Medical Student Essay: I See You Gold Foundation Essay by Riley Plett, 2023
• 2023 Hope Babette Tang Humanism in Healthcare Essay Contest: Third-Place Medical Student Essay: The Gift of Grief Gold Foundation Essay by Emily Otiso, 2023
• 2023 Hope Babette Tang Humanism in Healthcare Essay Contest First-Place Medical Student Essay: The Nail Salon Gold Foundation Essay by Federico Erhart, 2023
• As a physician – Why write? Why reflect? Reflection from Hugh Silk, 2019
• Humanism Before Heroism in Medicine Urmimala Sarkar, Christine Casse, 2021
• Humanism in Medicine: What Does It Mean and Why Is It More Important Than Ever? George E Thibault, 2019 After exploring the development of humanism, Thibault then details antihumanistic behaviors and policies in the current political environment and makes the case that these behaviors and policies threaten humanism in medicine. He calls on the medical profession to renew its commitment to humanism and to oppose antihumanistic behaviors and policies. It will be hard, he concludes, to have humanism in medicine if there is no humanism in the world around us.
• Medicine and humanism in the time of COVID-19. Ethical choices Marco Doldi, Andrea Moscatelli, Angelo Ravelli, Raffaele Spiazzi, Paolo Petralia, 2020
• Teaching and Practicing Humanism and Empathy through Embodied Engagement Sana Loue, 2022 This essay suggests that the development of humanistic practice requires attention to not only the cognitive and affective/emotive aspects of humanism, but also to the nurturing of intersubjectivity between the provider and the patient through strategies designed to promote embodied awareness.

To be of use by Marge Piercy

The people I love the best jump into work head first without dallying in the shallows and swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight. They seem to become natives of that element, the black sleek heads of seals bouncing like half-submerged balls.

I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart, who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience, who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward, who do what has to be done, again and again.

I want to be with people who submerge in the task, who go into the fields to harvest and work in a row and pass the bags along, who are not parlor generals and field deserters but move in a common rhythm when the food must come in or the fire be put out.

The work of the world is common as mud. Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust. But the thing worth doing well done has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident. Greek amphoras for wine or oil, Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums but you know they were made to be used. The pitcher cries for water to carry and a person for work that is real.

A Portable Paradise by Roger Robinson

And if I speak of Paradise, then I’m speaking of my grandmother who told me to carry it always on my person, concealed, so no one else would know but me. That way they can’t steal it, she’d say. And if life puts you under pressure, trace its ridges in your pocket, smell its piney scent on your handkerchief, hum its anthem under your breath. And if your stresses are sustained and daily, get yourself to an empty room – be it hotel, hostel or hovel – find a lamp and empty your paradise onto a desk: your white sands, green hills and fresh fish. Shine the lamp on it like the fresh hope of morning, and keep staring at it till you sleep.

• Common Sense Family Doctor Common sense thoughts on public health and conservative medicine from a family doctor in Lancaster, PA.
• A Country Doctor Writes Notes from a doctor with a laptop, a housecall bag and a fountain pen
• Doc Grimes MY MISSION: To find those beliefs and behaviours that hold me back, that keep me from saying yes to life as it comes to me, and helping every person find those hidden beliefs and behaviours, in themselves, so they can say yes to themselves when they have always said no.
• DR. MIKE SEVILLA | FAMILY PHYSICIAN
• Dr. Synonymous An Ohio Family Physician curious about the human condition and how that applies to the practice of Family Medicine. By A. Patrick Jonas, MD
• FrugalFamilyDoctor
• Future of Family Medicine ..fresh perspectives by residents & students committed to the only true primary care specialty
• THE INTERSTITIUM The Interstitium serves as a multimedia, online home for the University of Massachusetts Medical School community members to reflect on their experiences.
• LIFE IN UNDERSERVED MEDICINE ONE FAMILY DOCTOR'S LIFE IN MEDICALLY UNDERSERVED COMMUNITIES.
• Peter Elias, MD I am a retired family physician, husband, father, grandfather, Nordic skier, photographer, web developer, guitar player, and holder of opinions. I am ferociously curious and willing to change my mind.
• Ruminations of a Family Doctor This blog consists of the random ruminations of Keisa Bennett, a Family physician in Lexington KY. Now my job is a wonderful mixture of seeing patients, teaching (and learning from) residents and students, and attempting to further health care knowledge through research. I have not been finding much time for the kind of reflection I need to keep up my personhood, so every so often I will try to do that here. You're invited to join in the conversations.
• The Singing Pen of Doctor Jen I'm a family doctor who works in medical education. On this blog, I write about my work in residency practice and faculty development. My personal story of infertility and parenthood also crops up from time to time.
• Training Family Doctors
• << Previous: Home
• Last Updated: Feb 9, 2024 1:31 PM
• URL: https://libraryguides.umassmed.edu/GoldHumanism

• Prospective Students
• Current Students
• Residents & Fellows
• Give to SMHS

Gold Humanism Honor Society

The Arnold P. Gold Foundation initiated the Gold Humanism Honor Society (GHHS) in 2001 in hopes that the values of humanism and professionalism would be recognized in individuals that demonstrate excellence in clinical care, leadership, compassion, and dedication to service. There is a growing recognition that a health care provider’s professionalism and humanism directly and tangibly improve the quality of patient care, just as does a physician’s mastery of the science of medicine. In 2007 the George Washington University joined more than 50 medical schools in establishing a chapter of the GHHS. We seek to recognize and validate the importance of empathy, altruism, and professionalism in the establishment of healing relationships between physicians and patients.

We are proud to recognize honorees from the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences that have been nominated by their peers and confirmed by members of the staff and faculty as outstanding examples of professionalism and humanism.

Gold Humanism Honor Society Application Essay - On Humanist Medicine

• PMID: 28900584
• PMCID: PMC5592384
• Physician-Patient Relations
• Students, Medical / psychology*

• Nebraska Medicine
• Current Students
• Current Faculty

Gold Humanism Honor Society

The University of Nebraska School of Medicine Chapter of the Gold Humanism Honor Society (GHHS) was founded in 2015 with support from the Arnold P. Gold Foundation. The UNMC chapter is part of the greater national GHHS organization that recognizes and supports humanistic exemplars in medicine. The inaugural class of medical students, residents, and faculty was elected and inducted in Spring 2015 and all joined together with the common aim of instilling a culture of respect, dignity, and compassion for patients and professionals at UNMC.

Being a member of GHHS is a significant honor and GHHS status is recognized [by residency Program Directors] as comparable to selection into other medical honor societies such as Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA).

Donate to the Gold Humanism Honor Society

The mission of the Gold Humanism Honor Society at the University of Nebraska Medical Center is to model, support, and advocate for humanism in medicine. We will pursue our mission through fostering compassionate patient-centered care, cultivating student-resident-faculty relationships, and providing student and physician outreach opportunities for the betterment of patients’ lives. We will recognize and award students, residents, and faculty who embody humanistic principles in their profession now, with the goal of continuing to nurture and support these principles throughout their future careers.

Humanism in health care is characterized by a respectful and compassionate relationship between physicians, as well as all other members of the healthcare team, and their patients. It reflects attitudes and behaviors that are sensitive to the values and the cultural and ethnic backgrounds of others. The humanistic healthcare professional demonstrates the following attributes (“I.E., C.A.R.E.S.”):

• Integrity: the congruence between expressed values and behavior
• Excellence: clinical expertise
• Compassion: the awareness and acknowledgement of the suffering of another and the desire to relieve it
• Altruism: the capacity to put the needs and interests of another before your own
• Respect: the regard for the autonomy and values of another person
• Empathy: the ability to put oneself in another’s situation, e.g., physician as patient
• Service: the sharing of one’s talent, time and resources with those in need; giving beyond what is required.

Each Spring, medical students are asked to nominate their peers and residents for induction into the UNMC Chapter of GHHS. Students who receive the top 20% of votes are asked to send in a Curriculum Vitae and complete an essay answering the following questions:

• How do you exemplify the characteristics of the GHHS (provide examples)?
• If you are selected to be a member of GHHS, how will you help to promote compassionate, patient-centered care at our institution?

Based on the CV and personal essays, selection committee members make the final determination regarding membership into the GHHS UNMC Chapter. A formal induction ceremony is held in the Spring and includes the traditional pinning ceremony.

Chapter Activities

Emotionally supporting a patient during their most difficult of times will always be an aspect of being a physician. This is an enormous honor, but can also take a toll on health care providers. On the other hand, experiencing powerful and uplifting moments in the hospital or clinic is also an aspect of being a physician. In order to help improve resiliency, we host a weekly journal club. These sessions start with a prompt given by Dr. Bud Shaw. Students take some time to write a response then share their writing with a group of students that may be dealing with similar situations. These sessions are a safe place for students to share burdens or difficulties they may face. It is our hope that through writing we can learn to better take care of our patients and ourselves. If interested or for more information, contact: [email protected]

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to many lonely days for patients at hospitals because of visitor restrictions. The members of GHHS were looking for ways to remain helpful in the medical field and in our local community during these difficult times, so we developed a Pen Pal Program for patients at UNMC. The students write their well wishes to patients that may be facing difficulties and have them delivered every month. Patients have the option to write back to the students if they wish to keep the conversation going. We hope that these letters will help bring some joy into patients’ lives during these trying times. Contact [email protected] if interested in more information

Several times a year, we organize dinners hosted by interested faculty for students. We aim to bring together medical students, residents, and faculty in an effort to combat the compassion-fatigue that can develop in the process of our education, training, and careers. It is our hope that these dinners will be a forum through which we can discuss our experiences, give and receive advice, and support our fellow students and colleagues in every level of professional training. By supporting and growing with each other, we also mold each other into positive, compassionate people who prioritize advocacy for patients. Groups will be limited in size in order to preserve a sense of camaraderie and familiarity amongst attendees. Contact [email protected] if interested in more information.

The hospital is filled with a diverse array of patients. Some rooms are filled with family and friends, cards and pictures, balloons and flowers. Other rooms, unfortunately, remain empty. The goal of Sunday Rounds is to tend to these patients. We gather a group of volunteers to visit these patients, whether virtually or in person, twice monthly. This gives us the opportunity to listen, talk, and support these patients. Our hope is that a short visit from us will bring them some joy. One of the goals of GHHS is to foster compassionate, patient-centered care; we believe that visiting patients for the sole purpose of hearing how they are doing is a large step towards this goal. This project also gives students the opportunity to experience patient interaction early in their medical careers while providing patients with a much needed respite from the constant discussion of only their medical woes. Students from all four years of medical school are welcome and encouraged to participate in this project whenever they are able. If interested or for more information, please contact: [email protected]

Each year, a member of our group gives a speech at the White Coat Ceremony for incoming first year medical students emphasizing the importance of being compassionate when caring for patients. Each student also receives a letter written by us and a Gold Humanism pin for their white coats. This will serve as a reminder to continue to practice patient-centered care. Our goal is to instill the importance of patient-centered care early on in order to keep pushing students to be the best they can be for their patients.

GHHS Leadership and Membership

Gold Humanism Honor Society

“excellence in clinical care, leadership, compassion and dedication to service”.

Society Mentors: Eileen Moore, M.D. , Associate Dean for Community Service and Advocacy

  [email protected]

The Gold Humanism Honor Society (GHHS) at Georgetown University was established to recognize individuals who exemplify patient-centered medicine, emphasizing the “Cura Personalis” philosophy that we practice here in the Georgetown medical community. The GHHS is supported nationally by the Arnold P. Gold Foundation .

Golden Humanism Honor Society has 177 medical chapters across the world to honor those who demonstrate service and compassion in healthcare. There are more than 40,000 medical students, physicians, and other leaders who have been inducted and serve as role models. The Gold Foundation champions humanism in healthcare, which they define as compassionate, collaborative, and scientifically excellent care. They aim to support humanism in healthcare and those who want a place to connect, share, and advocate for our shared mission.

This year, we are excited to take part in society activities and leave a legacy of GHHS for years to follow! We are participating in Golden Humanism Honor Society events as well as hosting our own project.

Eligibility and Selection

Students are peer-nominated by a survey questionnaire provided during the spring of the third year. Students are encouraged to identify individuals who exemplify the characteristics of GHHS. Those nominated will be invited to submit a CV and statement to the GHHS Selection Committee, who will identify 10-15% of the class for induction that year. Eligibility requires good academic standing, however, academic performance is not a consideration in the selection process. Students selected for GHHS will be expected to develop an activity or program that highlights the philosophy of Cura Personalis and humanism in medicine during their fourth year at Georgetown SOM.

Chapter 2022 Events

Solidarity Week

We also hosted a talk on February 16th in partnership with Hoya MedAlliance on LGBTQ+ Care and Advocacy in Medicine w/ Dean Lee Jones and learned from our incredible dean of medicine about competent care for LGBTQAI+ patients! 

We will be thanking our incredible residents for all their hard work with a day of food and goodies! We will be dropping off appreciation goodie bags to residents throughout the hospital filled with food and wellness items! 

Lastly, we will be hosting a blood drive with INOVA Blood Donor Services on April 25th! We will be using this event to bring attention around this time to the discriminatory blood donation practices against the LGBTQ+ community as well as the national blood crisis! 

Georgetown GHHS 2022 Executive Board

President: Alberto Perez (M22)

Vice President: Teju Peesay (M22)

Treasurer: Melissa Baker (M22) 

Secretary: Anjani Kapadia (M22)

Contact us at: [email protected]

Europe PMC requires Javascript to function effectively.

Either your web browser doesn't support Javascript or it is currently turned off. In the latter case, please turn on Javascript support in your web browser and reload this page.

Search life-sciences literature (43,839,525 articles, preprints and more)

• Free full text
• Citations & impact
• Similar Articles

Gold Humanism Honor Society Application Essay - On Humanist Medicine.

Hawai'i Journal of Medicine & Public Health : a Journal of Asia Pacific Medicine & Public Health , 01 Sep 2017 , 76(9): 270 PMID: 28900584  PMCID: PMC5592384

Free full text in Europe PMC

Abstract 

Free full text , gold humanism honor society application essay - on humanist medicine.

Humanism is the perspective through which I understand my desire to help others feel secure as persons, while under duress, in otherwise dehumanizing circumstances. It is an outlook regarding medicine, rather than a skill set within it; a set of priorities that refocus care around the patient as an individual, beyond the scope of their immediate medical predicament.

The practice of medicine is rife with de-humanization, from issues of autonomy to concepts of wellbeing in general. In most cases, expedience and limitations of circumstance set the priorities of care. When emergent treatment allows for only superficially informed consent, or when time constraints and language barriers force a patient to accept a care plan without adequate understanding, human connection is sacrificed for systematic efficiency. Whatever its origin, however ubiquitous its practice or beneficent its intent, this failure to fully engage as humans can only degrade the basis of trust underlying the patient-physician interaction.

In this regard, the hospital experience stands out. From admission to discharge, the inpatient experience immerses the patient in a rigid and alien culture of medicine. The routines of daily life are disrupted, the social order and environment unknown, forcing a patient to abruptly reconstruct their own identity within the bounds of illness. A patient's hospitalization risks becoming an existential threat, and demands they reshape their sense of self in response to pathology they may neither understand nor accept.

Throughout my brief time on rotations this year, I've met many patients grappling with this phenomenon. Across ages, genders, cultures; these people find themselves stranded in illness, unable to explain exactly how they came to be here in the care of strangers, awaiting some vague and jargon-shrouded cure. Some react with anger, others with resignation, some small few with relief, but most share a sense of frustration at their inability to alter their own state of affairs.

With most of these patients, I—as a medical student—can do very little to influence their care plan, or shift the course of their physical illness. Rounding on my patients, recording their complaints and physical findings, generally serves a useful but minimal role in their routine care. In many cases, the protections that buffer me from liability wind up insulating me from meaningful patient care. As frustrating as these limitations can be, they provide me with an environment of otherwise stunning potential for interpersonal empowerment.

If my role as a medical student renders me impotent as a practitioner, it leaves me all the more empowered as a human actor within the healthcare system. I am uniquely entrusted with access into the lives of those undergoing profound stress, which allows me to address gaps in care and barriers to meaningful communication that might otherwise be invisible to healthcare providers. The most useful I've felt has been in simply talking story with my patients and their families, encouraging them to remember and engage with their lives, to set goals and priorities beyond the walls of their hospital room.

These conversations, these moments of semi-contrived normalcy, do not relate to the treatment of physical illness per se . They represent an effort in parallel with treatment, with complementary goals. Acting to empower a patient's sense of autonomy or self-value does not serve toward curing a pathology, but functions to aid a patient's transition away from a perspective of illness. This psychological transition, however abstract, is absolutely essential to the individual healing process. This focus on the subject, the patient, rather than the science of medicine, is Humanism at work.

Citations & impact 

This article has not been cited yet.

Impact metrics

Alternative metrics.

Similar Articles 

To arrive at the top five similar articles we use a word-weighted algorithm to compare words from the Title and Abstract of each citation.

2010 Humanism in Medicine Essay Contest: second place: The white coat.

Acad Med , 85(11):1764-1765, 01 Nov 2010

Cited by: 0 articles | PMID: 20980866

2010 Humanism in Medicine Essay Contest: third place.

Acad Med , 85(10):1628-1629, 01 Oct 2010

Cited by: 4 articles | PMID: 20881684

2018 Hope Babette Tang Humanism in Healthcare Essay Contest: First Place Medical Student Essay.

Acad Med , 93(12):1804-1805, 01 Dec 2018

Cited by: 0 articles | PMID: 30489308

2019 Hope Babette Tang Humanism in Healthcare Essay Contest: Second Place Medical Student Essay.

Acad Med , 94(11):1720-1721, 01 Nov 2019

Cited by: 0 articles | PMID: 31663958

A Methodological Review of the Assessment of Humanism in Medical Students.

Buck E , Holden M , Szauter K

Acad Med , 90(11 suppl):S14-23, 01 Nov 2015

Cited by: 10 articles | PMID: 26505097

Europe PMC is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

• Quick Links

Tools & Resources

• Events Calendar
• Strauss Health Sciences Library
• Department A-Z Directory
• Campus Directory
• Faculty & Staff Resources
• Supporter & Alumni Resources
• Student Resources
• Mental Health Resources
• University Policies

CU Campuses

Cu anschutz medical campus.

• CU Colorado Springs
• School of Dental Medicine
• Graduate School

School of Medicine

• College of Nursing
• Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
• Colorado School of Public Health

Gold Humanism Honor Society

The mission of the Gold Humanism Honor Society, which was established in 2001-2002 by the Arnold P. Gold Foundation Board of Trustees, is to recognize individuals who are exemplars of humanistic patient care and who can serve as role models in medicine. The power of the society brings them together to sustain their own humanism and to inspire and nurture humanism in others. The Society is organized under the auspices of the foundation, and, as such, financial support of the Society shall be provided by the foundation through its annual budget and with funds raised specifically for the Society through endowment, annual campaign and voluntary foundation membership dues.

Medical Students

Medical students nominate their peers to be inducted into the Gold Humanism Honor Society in recognition of their "excellence in clinical care, leadership, compassion and dedication to service." The 2018-19 inductees include​:

• Meha Semwal
• Meryl​ Colton
• John Hallett
• Kathleen Raskob
• Blake Volkmer
• Reade Tillman
• Bijan Ghaffari
• Eric Sasine
• Elizabeth Bloemen
• Shayer Chowdhury
• Fred Gonzales
• Robin Harland
• Srinidhi Radhakrishnan
• Catherine Ard
• Saikripa Radhakrishman
• Indira Sriram
• Michael Dittmar
• Tyler Reinking
• Erin McGonagle
• Daniel Slack
• Olivia Charlier
• Paul Eigenberger
• Joshua Mares
• Wafik Sedhom
• Matthew Cataldo
• Taylor Lynch
• Giselle McIntyre

The 2017-18 inductees include​:

• Ben Flitter
• Carrie Myers
• Cecelia Johnson-Sasso
• Christina Farid
• Claudia Temmer
• Cody Brevik
• Emily Garban
• Erica Martinez
• Gaylan Dascanio
• Julia Newman
• Katherine Lind
• Kathryn Guinn
• Kelly Finnegan
• Kevin Quackenbush
• Lauren Oberle
• Luke Baldelli
• Nazanin Kuseh Kalani Yazd
• Oren Gordon
• Paola Casillas
• Parsa Ghasem
• Richard Froude
• Robert Flick
• Sarah Williams
• Timothy Miller
• Tristan Dear
• Tuan Dung Nguyen
• Caitlin Felder-Heim
• Michael Berger​

2016-17 inductees include:

• Jaleh Akhavan-Yekta
• Sarah Axelrath
• Brenna Benson
• Michael Berger
• Van (Mimi) Chau
• Robin Christian
• Thomas Clagett
• James Engeln
• Clayton Garthe
• Emily Hause
• Daniel Hecht
• Caitlin Heim
• Christopher Johnson
• Sonia Khatter
• Regina Kwon
• Meara Melton
• Magdalena Reinsvold
• Benjamin Saccomano
• Jason Santiago
• Maithri Sarangam
• Vera Staley
• Alexander Steinberg
• Kenji Tanabe
• Jacqueline To
• Rachel Wojcik

2015-16 inductees include:

• Tyler Anderson
• Brittany Badesch
• Claire Bovet
• Natasha Cabrera
• Thomas Califf
• Sarah Cebron
• Brittany Cowfer
• Phillip Hannan
• Erin Hickey
• Andi Hudler
• Emily Johnson
• Kelsey Luoma
• Alexandra Ly
• Abagail Nimz
• Seerat Poonia
• Bianca Pullen
• Shamita Punjabi
• Romany Redman
• Stacy Romero
• Ramy Sidhom
• Sarah Teitz
• Gabrielle Whitmore
• Gabriel Williams
• Elizabeth Wood

The 2014-15 inductees include:

• Nathan J. Ansbaugh
• Erik P. Arellano
• Lauren E. Ayres
• Joshua F. Bailey
• Julie R. Dyer
• Courtney A. Eichengreen
• Carlie S. Field
• Michael R. Frank
• Laura C. Kennedy
• Christopher E. Kennel
• Patrick R. Minot
• David L. Murphy
• Eric H. Petersen
• Joel Roberts
• Sammie Roberts
• Ethan J. Rosenberg
• Michael R. Rudolph
• Lucas A. Salg
• Stephanie N. Sandhu
• Jane Stewart
• Rebecca E. Thomson
• Timothy H. Ung
• Alyssa M. Yang

The 2013-14 inductees include:

•  Nicholas Berlin  
• Joshua Bollan  
• Nicholas Breitnauer  
• Margaret Emmott  
• Christopher Haas 
• Francis Hall  
• Joedy Hulings  
• Vimal Jhaveri  
• Jeffrey Lewis  
• Caren Millard  
• Upasana Mohapatra  
• Christina Osborne  
• Christopher Piatz
• Sara Scannell
• Lindsey Schaffer
• Carmen Sepulveda
• Matthew Shirazi
• Igor Shumskiy
• Brooke Thurman
• Stephen Wills
• Chelsea Wolf

I pledge by all that I hold dear as a Physician: I will Care for my patients with Compassion, Respect, Empathy, Integrity and Clinical Excellence; I will Listen to my patients with my whole being; I will Advocate for each patient as a unique individual; I will Serve as a role model and mentor to promote humanism in health care; I will Remember always the healing power of acts of caring; I will Dedicate myself to joining with others to make health care optimal for all.

CU Anschutz

Fitzsimons Building

13001 East 17th Place

Campus Box C290

Aurora, CO 80045

303.724.5375

• School of Medicine Home
• Find a Doctor
• Find a Researcher
• Departments
• Provider Profiles
• Affiliate/Partner Hospitals
• CU Medicine
• Map and Parking
• Health Science Library
• Student Life
• Fort Collins Branch
• Colorado Springs Branch

Your browser is unsupported

We recommend using the latest version of IE11, Edge, Chrome, Firefox or Safari.

College of Medicine

Students honors and awards, awards heading link copy link, alpha omega alpha (aoa) honor society.

Founded in 1902, Alpha Omega Alpha is the national medical honor society. Its mission is to improve care for everyone by recognizing high educational achievement; honoring gifted teaching; encouraging the development of leaders in academia and the community; supporting the ideals of humanism; and promoting service to others.

• Algorithm Calculation for Nomination to Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honorary Society

Gold Humanism Honor Society

The mission of the Gold Humanism Honor Society (GHHS) is to recognize individuals who practice humanistic patient care and who can serve as role models, mentors, and leaders in medicine. The power of the Society lies in bringing together like-minded individuals to sustain their own humanism and to inspire and nurture humanism in others. Membership in GHHS goes beyond selection and induction into an honor society; its members have demonstrated compassion, empathy and humanism in their prior work and have a responsibility to model, support, and advocate for compassionate, patient-centered care throughout their careers.

The University of Illinois College of Medicine (UI COM) has formed three local chapters of this national honor society to recognize outstanding humanistic activity among the students at our three different campuses. The Gold Humanism Honor Society is sponsored by the Arnold P. Gold Foundation whose mission is fostering humanism in medicine. The Gold Foundation defines humanism as “encompassing those attitudes and behaviors that emanate from a deep sensitivity and respect for others, including full acceptance of all cultural and ethnic backgrounds. Further, humanism is exemplified through compassionate, empathetic treatment of all persons, while recognizing each one’s needs and autonomy.”

The Gold Foundation is a public, not-for-profit organization established in 1988 by Drs. Arnold and Sandra Gold, colleagues at the Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons in New York City, and dedicated community leaders and philanthropists. Through funds raised by The Foundation for programs, significant advances have been made in the development, implementation, evaluation and replication of innovative medical educational programs and projects to influence the way physicians are trained. National programs include sponsorship of the White Coat Ceremony for incoming medical students, Student Clinician’s Ceremony for rising third year medical students, fellowships, essay contests, lectures, Humanism and Excellence in Teaching Awards, national symposia, training videos, and an on-line Humanism Resource Center. More information on the Foundation: http://humanism-in-medicine.org/

For more information on the local chapters at our different campuses and the award recipients for the current year, please visit the respective websites:

• Share on facebook
• Share on Twitter

Gold Humanism Honor Society celebrates its 20th anniversary

First and only medical school honor society devoted to humanistic excellence has helped transform medical education and reorient the definition of optimal care

The Arnold P. Gold Foundation is delighted to announce that the Gold Humanism Honor Society , now nearly 45,000 members and 180 chapters strong, is celebrating its 20 th anniversary in 2022. This year, the Gold Foundation will be celebrating this important milestone at its Annual Gala on June 9.

GHHS membership recognizes medical students and physicians who are role models of such optimal care. Members are expected to be active leaders in medicine and uphold this Gold standard of care in their connections with patients and colleagues.

Prominent GHHS members include U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, former California Surgeon General Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, Flint whistleblower Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, medical humanities icon and award-winning writer Dr. Abraham Verghese, bestselling author Dr. Michele Harper, President Emeritus of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement Dr. Don Berwick, and Dr. Anthony Fauci, Chief Medical Advisor to the President.

Wayne State University GHHS member

“The Gold Humanism Honor Society has elevated the humanistic physician, turning the spotlight in medical education to the full spectrum of patient-centered care,” said Dr. Richard I. Levin, President and CEO of the Gold Foundation. “GHHS is one of the most important creations of the Gold Foundation. It has succeeded both in shifting the priorities in medical education and in establishing a reinforcing community and multiplying effect of compassionate, collaborative doctors who serve as role models to others.”

GHHS is based on the theory of recognition as a change agent and improvement tool, understanding that students learn from what is rewarded and what is modeled. At the core of the student selection process, GHHS chapters use a  peer-nomination process  to select members, who make up no more than 15% of a medical school class. GHHS chapters can also induct resident physicians and faculty members who are nominated by medical students.

In 2015, GHHS was added to the ERAS® form (Electronic Residency Application Service) used to apply to residency positions. This allows residency program directors to identify GHHS members in their candidate searches.

GHHS induction at the University of South Alabama, 2021

GHHS began with three chapters in 2002 – at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine at the University of Iowa, and Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. GHHS chapters have since spread across America and into a few other countries, including Lebanon and Israel.

The yearlong 20 th anniversary celebration will include special recognition at the Gold Foundation Gala in June and a GHHS day as part of the virtual conference in May. Stories and podcast episodes will highlight GHHS members throughout the year. A special 20 th anniversary pin has been minted to honor this milestone.

And GHHS is more than an honor. Each GHHS member is expected to live the values of humanism throughout their career, and GHHS chapters are expected to lead projects that exemplify these values.

GHHS members are typically inducted in their third year of medical school, which allows them to tackle humanistic projects in their fourth year of study. Recent projects have included creating COVID-19 care packages, building an anti-racism book section in the medical school library, and producing video vignettes to prompt discussion around bias.

GHHS Chapter at The Ohio State Field Day, 2013

This work is shaped by the GHHS Advisory Council and Sub-Committees, which are made up of volunteer physicians and medical students who work with the Gold staff to create events and initiatives for GHHS chapters and members.

The current chair of the GHHS Advisory Council is Dr. Greg Cherr, a vascular surgeon who is Professor of Surgery and Assistant Dean for Graduate Medical Education at the University at Buffalo-State University of New York. Dr. Cherr sits on the Gold Board of Trustees and was inducted into GHHS in 2008.

“For the many healthcare professionals around the world who care deeply about humanism in healthcare, GHHS has played a special role in supporting the human side of medicine,” said Dr. Cherr. “The community and activities born out of GHHS have served as beacons of humanism and hope, especially in these challenging times for healthcare.”

Eastern Virginia Medical School students celebrate 2022 Solidarity Week for Compassionate Patient Care.

Two popular annual GHHS events are Solidarity Week for Compassionate Patient Care , which falls on Valentine’s week, and in 2022 will be February 14-18, and Thank a Resident Day , which will be February 25. While both events are led by GHHS, all healthcare institutions are welcome to participate.

“I am thoroughly intrigued and delighted with the creativity of Solidarity Day/Week programs, as well as, the continued growth of GHHS,” said Dr. Sandra Gold, Co-Founder and Board Trustee. “Bold and inspired leadership in partnership with an enthusiastic, talented membership has been a powerful formula for GHHS success over these 20 years. And during this relentless pandemic, our shared GHHS values of humanism and clinical excellence have helped sustain human connection and truly made a difference.”

Starting in 2018, GHHS began identifying an annual theme for the chapter projects. The first such initiative was the Veterans Gold Health Initiative . GHHS chapters and members were encouraged to learn how to more effectively identify and treat America’s veterans.

In 2020, with the urgency mounting to address systemic racism, GHHS created a new initiative, Humanism and Healing: Structural Racism and Its Impact on Medicine . This framing galvanized GHHS members, sparking projects and events that opened up new conversations and work in their communities. The Humanism and Healing initiative led to a 2021 conference of the same name, hosted by GHHS and open to the entire Gold community. That remarkable virtual gathering drew nearly 500 attendees and featured keynotes, panels of GHHS members and other leaders, a poster session, an art gallery, and much more.

The success of that immense effort led to the 2022 GHHS international initiative, which extends the work: Healing the Heart of Healthcare: Reimagining How We Listen, Connect, and Collaborate . Again, GHHS chapters at medical schools around the globe are probing how they can make a difference in their communities. That work will be shared at a virtual conference in May 2022.

University of Hawaii’s John A. Burns School of Medicine Solidarity Week, 2019

“The work over these two decades by our nearly 45,000 members has been phenomenal,” said Louisa Tvito, Director of GHHS and Program Initiatives at the Gold Foundation. “And for all the projects and events led formally by GHHS, we also know that there are countless hidden moments in which GHHS members who are physicians connect with their patients with compassion and really see them and hear them. We know GHHS members are making a difference every single day in ensuring humanistic care for all.”

Related posts

The 2024 gold humanism summit draws nearly 400 people to atlanta.

National Gold Foundation conference focused on “The Person in Front of You” with dynamic speakers, insightful sessions and discussions, surprise marching band, interactive drumming, Art Gallery, Poster Hall, Hackathon, and … chevron_right   Read more

Geisel School of Medicine Celebrates Artwork Honoring the Abenaki People

Umass chan gold humanism honor society chapter inducts 36 members.