White Coat ceremony times two

Two classes, two White Coat ceremonies

“At different points in our lives, we can seek change, we can adjust to change, we can create change, and we can be the change.”

Kunle Odunsi, MD, PhD

“Be humble as you go forward. For me it’s the best advice you can take. And pass on that knowledge to those who haven’t had the experience you’ve had over the last couple years.”

Stephen Weber, MD The White Coat Ceremony returned to Rockefeller Memorial Chapel in August for the first time since 2019. The 89 members of the Class of 2026 received their white coats and recited the Hippocratic Oath together in front of family and friends.

Kunle Odunsi, MD, PhD, AbbVie Foundation Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Director of the University of Chicago Medicine Comprehensive Cancer Center, urged students to become change agents “to make the world better one person, one family and one community at a time.”

And in June, third-year medical students whose White Coat Ceremony was canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic participated in a special “make-up” ceremony just before starting their clinical clerkships.

Speaker Stephen Weber, MD, Executive Vice President for Clinical Effectiveness and Chief Medical Officer, talked about the unique perspective the class has heading into their clinical years, having participated in UChicago Medicine’s pandemic response. “In some ways, this makes you the best prepared medical school class there ever has been,” he said.

Students in the Pritzker School of Medicine entering Class of 2020 recite the Hippocratic Oath at a special White Coat Ceremony held at the start of their clinical years. Frazer Tessema, MS3, dons his white coat, top photo.

Drawing by Tony Da Lomba, MD’22, chosen for cover of Academic Medicine

An eye-catching drawing by Tony Da Lomba, MD’22, titled “The Doctor Will See You Now,” appeared on the cover of the June 2022 issue of Academic Medicine.

Da Lomba, 27, an orthopaedic surgery resident at the University of Chicago Medicine, stumbled upon a request for cover art submissions last year from the journal’s publisher, the Association of American Medical Colleges.

A fourth-year Pritzker student at the time, he came up with the idea for his drawing—of a young physician emerging from the computer screen— after finishing an assignment during which students conducted mock telehealth visits. Da Lomba thought the image would capture the nature of healthcare both during the COVID-19 pandemic and in the future.

Da Lomba asked his friend, Victoria Oladipo, MS4, to be his model. Then Da Lomba, a selftaught digital artist who designed the Match Day T-shirts for his class, drew the image on his iPad using Procreate software.

Almost a year later, he learned his artwork had been chosen for the cover from 129 submissions. He and Oladipo were thrilled.

“There was a lot of all caps text messaging back and forth,” he said. “It felt like a shared victory.”

A panel of Academic Medicine staff and two art medicine experts recommended Da Lomba’s submission to Editor-in-Chief Laura Roberts, MD, MA. They liked its striking subject matter, impressive composition and technical quality, capturing a trainee’s perspective on healthcare during the pandemic. “The fact that the figure presented is a woman of color whose portrayal is not restricted to a statement on diversity, but is seen as a powerful figure whose identity is celebrated as part of her professional being, only enhances the impact of the piece,” one panelist said. Da Lomba has already submitted another potential cover illustration. “I haven’t heard back yet,” he said, “but I feel like this one is even better.”

— Jamie Bartosch Tony Da Lomba, MD’22

Victoria Oladipo, MS4

Pritzker students and alumni published in journal

Pritzker School of Medicine students and recent alumni made their presence felt in the August 2022 issue of Academic Medicine, landing three publications in the Trainee-Authored Letters to the Editor section.

Third-year students Gary Wang, Tony Dagher, and Julia Chael, AB’20, penned a letter titled “Moving From Words to Action: Leveraging Trainee Voices to Improve LGBTQ+ Equity and Inclusion,” highlighting the work they have done to make clinical and educational settings more inclusive for LGBTQ+ patients. Fellow third-year students Naomi Tesema and Cathy Luo, along with University of Chicago Medicine infectious disease fellow Maggie Collison, MD, authored a letter titled “Using Medical Students as Champions Against Misinformation During a Global Pandemic,” sharing their work battling COVID-19 misinformation. Third-year student Kristen Chalmers teamed with Nicole Dussault, MD’21, SM’20, now an internal medicine resident at Duke University Medical Center, and Ramya Parameswaran, PhD’18, MD’21, now an internal medicine resident at the University of California, San Francisco, on the letter “Encouraging Trauma-Informed Care of Sexual Assault Survivors.” The three all have previous experience counseling and/or advocating for survivors of sexual assault, including in hospital emergency departments.