Faith and Medicine:
The Modern Priesthood?
12:15 PM
At medical schools across the country students mark their passage from preclinical to clinical health science by donning a white coat in a ceremony of almost religious significance. The now-standard White Coat Ceremony – introduced to medical schools in the early 1990s – symbolizes a medical student’s conversion from a layperson to a member of the healthcare profession, not unlike a priest’s ordination to priesthood. Since its introduction, many people have pointed to the ceremony as evidence of the modern world’s veneration of medicine and healthcare, and of doctors as the new priests of well-being. Is the spirit of modernity a worship of health and medicine? When is the boundary crossed between emphasis and idolatry? In this panel, Christian doctors will reflect on the role of medicine and the doctor and share how their faith influences their practice of medicine.
Moderator
Gregg Fairbrothers, D’76
Adjunct Professor, Tuck School of Business
Founding Director, Dartmouth Entrepreneurial Network
Panelists
Frank Young, MD PhD
Former Commissioner, US Food and Drug Administration
Al Mulley MD MPP, D’70
Director, Dartmouth Center for Healthcare Delivery Science
