Aimee Guy, daughter of Christopher and Kim Thompson of Houlton, and Tim and Marcella Guy of Houlton, a first-year student at the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine (UNECOM), participated recently in the College’s annual White Coat Ceremony to formally recognize the transition students make from lay persons to those assuming the responsibility of physicians.
The evening ceremony was held at the Holiday Inn by the Bay in Portland, Maine, on Oct. 7. Event highlights included presentation of the white coats by members of the physician community; remarks by Marc B. Hahn, D.O., senior vice president for health affairs and Dean of the UNE College of Osteopathic Medicine; Joel Kase, D.O., president of the Maine Osteopathic Association; and Dr. Nancy Cummings, president-elect of the Maine Medical Association. Also speaking were second-year medical student Matthew Holz, president of the UNECOM Student Osteopathic Medical Association and second-year medical student Sean Tyler O’Sullivan, president of the UNECOM Student Government Association.
Martin S. Levine, D.O., delivered the keynote address. Dr. Levine is an AOA board-certified family physician who practices in Bayone and Jersey City, New Jersey. In July 2010, Dr. Levine was named president-elect of the American Osteopathic Association. Adam Lauer, D.O. ’00 UNECOM and president of the UNECOM Alumni Board, led the reading of the Osteopathic Oath. A reception to honor the Class of 2014 followed.
The White Coat Ceremony was an idea conceived by the Arnold P. Gold Foundation to create a psychological contract for professionalism and empathy in medicine. The first White Coat Ceremony took place in 1993 at Columbia’s College of Physicians and Surgeons. Since then, more than 100 other medical schools in the U.S. and abroad have initiated a similar ceremony.
