Hooding Ceremony Keynote Speech
N.Y. Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine, Old Westbury, New York
Humayun J. Chaudhry, DO, MACP, MACOI, President and CEO, Federation of State Medical Boards
David Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, New York, N.Y.
Monday, May 22, 2017
President Shoureshi, Incoming President Foley, Chairman Silva, Vice President Ballentine, Dr. Ross-Lee, Dean Gilliar, distinguished faculty, members of the great Class of 2017, ladies and gentlemen. For an alumnus of a medical school to be asked to speak at its graduation is a very high honor and I thank you.
I say the “great” Class of 2017 because of your magnificent achievement of a 100% match rate. Congratulations!
We gather today, let us remember, to also celebrate your graduation from the first osteopathic medical college in New York and one of America’s largest and finest medical schools. Few places there are where the dynamism of its leaders, faculty and students has transformed an institution of higher learning in so short a time as NYIT’s College of Osteopathic Medicine. In just four decades, this medical college has graduated more than 7,000 physicians, men and women who serve our nation across its spacious skies, from sea to shining sea. These alumni serve, as all 295 of you will, in the trenches and on the front lines along our fruited plains, in every specialty of medicine and surgery.
In ancient times, medicine was seen as the mother of sciences, but it is more than that, as the tireless educators in this impressive hall will attest. As ethics and professionalism have taken their rightful place in medical school curricula, alongside the Henderson-Hasselbach equation and the coagulation cascade, medicine is now appreciated as both art and science. This is not a new concept. Sir William Osler once said, “It is much more important to know what sort of a patient has a disease than what sort of a disease a patient has.”
Visionaries like W. Kenneth Riland, the noted physiatrist and flight surgeon, had a simple goal when he and his colleagues founded this college on Long Island to teach and advance the principles and practices of osteopathic medicine. Dr. Riland, who passed away in 1989 when I was still a student, wanted this college to serve as a beacon for the holistic approach to health care espoused 125 years ago by Andrew Taylor Still, the brilliant frontier physician and surgeon who founded our profession.
America’s future as a healthy nation depends on all our medical schools, and on their advances and achievements. As you begin your graduate medical education, know that medical science will continue to progress and advance alongside you. The explosion of medical information also means that you will need to find the time to keep up with what is happening around you.
Atul Gawande, a smart voice in health care, wrote an article in the New Yorker a couple of years ago about an avalanche of unnecessary medical care that is harming patients physically and financially. You may also be aware of the Choosing Wisely campaign, which seeks to avoid wasteful or unnecessary tests, treatments and procedures. And remember that more than 20,000 deaths a year are from the misuse, abuse, and diversion of prescription opioids, which you should prescribe responsibly. The Federation of State Medical Boards, my organization, has an updated guide to help you, as does the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and others.
You are what we call “digital natives,” so you are ready for technology and telemedicine, just as more of America gets faster internet speed and as sick care evolves into health care. But telemedicine is still medicine, and you can’t deliver manipulative therapy or definitively treat a heart attack online. Be excited about telemedicine, yes, but follow state laws, understand the limitations of technology, and never use it in a way that sacrifices the safety and privacy of your patients.
News coming out of Washington lately, which you may be aware of, has not always been inspiring. When good people get together to have intelligent conversations, however, please know that much can still be achieved. A prime example is the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact, which has thus far been signed into law by 21 states. Thanks to telemedicine, many of you will be working with patients in multiple states, something that we couldn’t imagine when we graduated. The Interstate Compact should make your life easier, improve access to care, and help telemedicine grow.
Regardless of your politics, all of you should get involved in many of the discussions going on in health care reform. Your voice is needed. Study the pros and cons of health policy and legislation for yourself. Read Health Affairs, the New England Journal of Medicine, Academic Medicine, JAMA, and JAOA, not because they are popular but because they are thoughtful, because they are peer-reviewed and because they are fact-based. Despite what you may read on Twitter, facts do matter.
The pursuit of happiness, writes historian David McCullough, does not mean long vacations, though you all deserve one now. It didn’t to the Founding Fathers, who saw education as the road to happiness. I am fortunate to have with me today my parents, my wife and my sons. My love of education comes from my mother, a teacher who remembers, even as a child, wanting to read every scrap of paper she came across. My sense of fair play I owe to my father, an attorney. My ability to pause and enjoy life comes from my wife, an oncology researcher. My sister, who is not here, has helped me appreciate perseverance. Our older son, who is in law school, has taught us patience. Our younger son, studying history, has taught us the value of compassion.
I close with a plea. Please make time for your own family and friends. Go to a concert, go on a picnic, play with your kids, visit your parents and grandparents who supported you during your studies, and try to be there when your child first starts to walk and talk. The FSMB is one of several organizations in the house of medicine that is studying physician wellness and burnout and will soon be offering advice to better promote what is sometimes known as a work-life balance. I am also hopeful that a “Healing Path” on your Old Westbury campus, inspired by students Matthew Goldfinger, Samantha Gottlieb and Alexander Nello, and championed by Vice President Ballentine and Dean Gilliar, will help promote wellness and introspective reflection among those students that follow your footsteps next year and beyond.
I wish you well, as you seek your own work-life balance.
Thank you and Godspeed!
