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Date: July 31, 2009
Contact: Jennifer Forbes
Communication & Public Affairs
Phone: 732-235-6356
Email: jenn.forbes@umdnj.edu
UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School Inducts the Class of 2013 at White Coat Ceremony
NEW BRUNSWICK – Members of UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School’s Class of 2013 will don their white coats, the attire traditionally worn by medical professionals, for the first time on Aug. 7 at the school’s annual induction ceremony.
The White Coat Ceremony will take place from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Arline and Henry Schwartzman Courtyard at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital.
The event culminates the Class of 2013 orientation and signifies the students’ entrance into the medical profession. Surrounded by family and friends, each student will step into the white coat, which will be worn for all clinical interactions during medical school, and then recite the Hippocratic Oath.
The event’s keynote speaker is Alfred F. Tallia, MD, professor and chair of the Department of Family Medicine at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. A board certified family physician, he is founding director of the health policy fellowship and chairs strategic planning for the medical school. Prior to becoming chair, he served as vice chair and associate director of research, during which time he helped foster growth of the department’s research, which now ranks among the top public schools in National Institute of Health (NIH) funding. During that time, he won the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine Research Award for the landmark study (Academic Medicine 1994) that demonstrated family medicine residencies reduce patient care costs for hospitals and the healthcare system. Dr. Tallia’s practice-based research focuses on the organization and quality of primary care in the healthcare system; his work has been funded by three NIH institutes, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Public Health Service.
Dr. Tallia is a member of the board and several committees of the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) and has engaged in development and oversight of competency assessment requirements for physicians in the US. He has chaired the governing committee of the US Post Licensure Assessment System, a joint operation of the NBME and Federation of State Medical Boards, and the Committee to Evaluate the USMLE Program, the national group that recently recommended substantive changes to the US Medical Licensing Examination.
WHAT: UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School White Coat Ceremony
WHEN: Aug. 7, 2 p.m. – 4 p.m.
WHERE: Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital
Arline and Henry Schwartzman Courtyard
1 Robert Wood Johnson Place
New Brunswick, NJ 08903
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