The future of medicine

Leisha Elmore, a first-year medical student from Newport News, Va., receives her white coat from W. Edwin Dodson, M.D., associate vice chancellor and associate dean for admissions and continuing medical education and professor of pediatrics and of neurology, at the White Coat Ceremony Aug. 15, while Will Ross, M.D. (left), associate dean for diversity and associate professor of medicine, assists. At the ceremony, 124 first-year students were presented with a white coat, a longtime symbol of the medical profession. The Class of 2012 gave a standing ovation to keynote speaker Richard A. Chole, M.D., Ph.D., the Lindburg Professor and chair of the Department of Otolaryngology, after his moving speech titled “What It’s Like To Be a Doctor.” Students also took an oath that they wrote during orientation.