Gold Humanism Honor Society at UMass Medical School inducts 24 students

The UMass Medical School chapter of the Gold Humanism Honor Society inducted 24 School of Medicine students as members on May 30. The students were nominated by their classmates and mentors as exemplars of compassionate, patient-centered care. Six residents and four faculty members were also inducted into the society. Inductees are nominated by their peers and become members of the school’s GHHS chapter upon being pinned by graduating chapter members.

The Gold Humanism Honor Society recognizes students, residents and faculty who practice “patient-centered care by modeling the qualities of integrity, excellence, compassion, altruism, respect and empathy.” It is a signature program of the Arnold P. Gold Foundation, an international nonprofit organization committed to fostering and maintaining a culture of compassion, caring and respect in health care. The UMMS chapter was established in 2014.
Keynote speaker Peter Metz, MD, professor of psychiatry and pediatrics, accepted the annual Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award. Dr. Metz, the 2019 recipient of the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Mentoring, has served on the faculty since 1983. He directed the child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship program for 17 years and the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry for 15 years. The recipient of numerous honors, Metz was awarded the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Assembly Catchers in the Rye Award last year. It recognizes an individual for his or her outstanding advocacy efforts on behalf of children and adolescents.

In his keynote, Metz stressed the importance of making connections with patients and their families and of remembering the values that brought the medical students into medicine. He also encouraged the students to be kind to themselves and practice self-care, which is essential to the practice of humanistic care.

“Remember to not let the perfect become the enemy of the good,” Metz said.

The student Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award was awarded to Meme Tran, MD, SOM ’19.

School of Medicine Dean Terence R. Flotte and Chancellor Michael F. Collins presided over the ceremony.

Student inductees

Arnav Chandra

Timothy Chang

Lauren Colwell

Hannah Duehren

Andrew El-Hayek

Jesse Feierabend-Peters

Ato Howard

Avina Joshi

Kelly King

Anna Klouda

Kendra Lastowka

Abraham Lin

Patrick Lowe

Alice Lu

Emma Materne

Pietro Miozzo

Hillary Mullan

Philip Picard-Fraser

Jessica Pierre Francois

Paul Rizzo

Cesar Rodriguez

Eric Romo

Jason Yang

Resident inductees

Christopher Driscoll, MD

Sharmila Jai Kumar, MD

Christina Kunycky, MD

Adriana Negrini, MD

Sara-Grace Reynolds, MD

Ashley Russo, MD

Faculty inductees

Diane Blake, MD

Cezar Cimpeanu, MD

Carolyn Keiper, MD

Beverly Nazarian, MD