Back in the 1990s, when medical educators and residency program directors expressed the need to recognize internship and residency applicants with both outstanding clinical and interpersonal skills, the Arnold P. Gold Foundation listened. That led to the creation of the Gold Humanism Honor Society (GHHS), which honors select medical students, residents, role-model physician teachers and others for “demonstrated excellence in clinical care, leadership, compassion and dedication to service” – in a word, humanism.
Des Moines University has an entire department devoted to teaching students how to care for patients with compassion, ethics and leadership. And in 2007, the University became one of 72 of the nation’s more than 160 medical schools to have a GHHS chapter.
Every year, a highly select group of fourth-year osteopathic students, nominated by their peers and faculty, are inducted into the society. That very special ceremony occurred last week. Congratulations to our fourth class of GHHS members!
“GHHS is very fitting for Des Moines University because it recognizes exactly what DMU prides itself on – the personal aspect of medicine,” says 2009 DMU graduate Justin Atherton, a member of the University’s first group of GHHS inductees. “DMU has academically gifted students, but it has a way of attracting students willing to go above and beyond to put the ‘caring’ back into medicine.”
