Nana Akua Asafu-Agyei and Calvin Barnes wait to don their white jackets during the ceremony on Harkness Lawn in late August.

Michael Reel was joined at the ceremony by his wife Susan and their one-year-old daughter, Julia.

Kendra Klang received her white jacket from Dean David Kessler.

Among the more than 40 alumni who attended the ceremony was Lycurgus Davey, who received his medical degree in 1943.

With diverse roots and much in common, Class of 2006 is welcomed to Yale

As with many of the classes that have come before, the Class of 2006 is a group of individuals with strong similarities and equally striking differences. About half the students attended Ivy League colleges, yet not all came to Yale straight from their undergraduate studies. Among the new students are a jet fighter pilot and a 40-year-old grandmother (See Long Road to Cedar Street). Also in the group are a record-breaking equestrian, a juggler who demonstrated his skills at a lunch for the new class, and students who organized programs or businesses that developed patient information software, published books and taught self-defense to women and teenage girls. The class includes students born in Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Vietnam, Cuba, Austria, China, Norway, the United Kingdom and Canada and students fluent in a variety of languages including French, German, Yiddish, Hebrew, Chinese and Japanese.

On the afternoon of August 27, these 55 women and 45 men gathered under a tent on Harkness Lawn for a ceremony that both unites them in a calling and symbolizes their profession. “Donning a white coat marks a rite of passage,” said Charles J. Lockwood, M.D., FW ’89, the new chair of obstetrics and gynecology, and keynote speaker at the White Jacket Ceremony. “A white coat is a potent and durable symbol of medicine’s rich past and exciting future.”

Tracing the history of medicine in the United States, Lockwood noted that many teaching techniques of the 19th century are still in vogue, as are humanism and a reverence for life. “What has changed is the quality and quantity of material that must be taught,” he said, recalling his first day as a medical student 25 years ago. “My dean told us that over the next four years we would double our vocabulary.” He became a physician before personal computers, before AIDS, before pet scans and before FedEx could deliver specimens overnight. “Indeed, the structure of DNA had only been discovered 25 years before. What occurred over the next 25 years is too amazing to contemplate.”

Dean David A. Kessler, M.D., closed the ceremony by asking for a promise from the new students. “Becoming a doctor is a privilege,” he said. “In exchange for that privilege I want you to change the world. I want you to do some good. The request I have of you is for the rest of your life.”

—John Curtis

Be true to yourself, your education and your profession, PA grads urged

In her Commencement address, Ina Cushman, PA-C ’86, president of the American Academy of Physician Assistants, urged the graduates in the Physician Associate Class of 2002 to hold three values dear: “Be true to yourself. Be true to your profession. Be true to your education,” she said. “These three pieces add up to a whole and complete life.

“Do not lose sight of who you are and where you came from,” she continued. “Do not lose sight of what is important in your life. Take time to think about your family, friends and colleagues. Actively seek balance in your life. There is a time for work and a time for play.”

William R. Miller, PA ’02, president of the Class of 2002, noted that because of the small class size—about 35 students—and the intensity of the concentrated 25-month curriculum, physician associates tend to form close friendships. “Everyone is an integral part of the group,” he said in remarks at graduation in September. “You don’t get to pick and choose who you talk to. You have to deal with everyone.” The group included, according to Miller, “a devout Muslim from Virginia … a former engineer … a frat boy from Connecticut … a French Canadian with a black belt in aikido … a hyper, 30-something surfer dude … and a nomadic 40-something from everywhere with a zest for life.”

—John Curtis

Surgery program sails forward

Last February, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) threatened to withdraw approval of Yale’s general surgery residency program because of its 100-hour work weeks and every-other-night call schedule. After steps were taken to reduce hours [Summer 2002, “Surgical Residency Revamped” p. 7], the ACGME announced in October that the program would continue without interruption. “We are very pleased, and we are moving along,” said Director John H. Seashore, M.D. ’65, HS ’70, professor of pediatric surgery. The program now limits residents’ work weeks to 80 hours, cuts back the number of days they are on call and has added 12 physician associates and other staff to extend coverage.

Seashore said residents have traditionally worked long hours, often doing administrative work or patient transport, tasks that can be performed by others. The ACGME’s action, he said, prodded the medical school and Yale-New Haven Hospital to address a longstanding imbalance between education and service. “In some ways they are the ammunition that forces the institution to say ‘We’ve got to expend the resources to fix this,’” Seashore said. “In two years they will revisit us and there is no question in my mind that we will get full accreditation at that time.” The surgery program had held provisional status since merging with several other residency programs in 1995 and, under ACGME rules, had to be considered a new entity.

—John Curtis