By Barbara Scott
Staff Writer
Monica Selander, the daughter of Dr. Arthur and Linda Selander of Caribou, a first year student at the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine (UNECOM) participated recently in the college’s annual White Coat Ceremony to formally recognize the transition students make from lay persons to those assuming the responsibility of physicians.
The evening ceremony, held in Portland on Oct. 7, included presentation of the white coats by members of the physician community; remarks by Marc B. Hahn, D.O., senior vice president for Health Affairs and dean of the UNE College of Osteopathic Medicine; Joel Kase, D.O. president of the Maine Osteopathic Association and Dr. Nancy Cummings, president-elect of the Maine Medical Association.
Also speaking during the event were second-year medical student Matthew Holz, president of the UNECOM Student osteopathic Medical Association and second-year medical student Sean Tyler O’Sullivan, president of the UNECOM Student Government Association.
Martin S. Levine, D.O., delivered the keynote address. Dr. Levine is an AOA board-certified family physician who practices in Bayone and Jersey City. Adam Lauer, D.O. ’00 UNECOM and president of the UNECOM Alumni Board, led the reading of the Osteopathic Oath.
A reception honoring the Class of 2014 followed.
The White Coat Ceremony was an idea conceived by the Arnold P. Gold Foundation to create a psychological contract for professionalism and empathy in medicine. The first White Coat Ceremony took place in 1993 at Columbia’s College of Physicians and Surgeons. Since then, more than 100 other medical schools in the U.S. and abroad have initiated a similar ceremony.
The University of New England is a top-ranked independent university with two distinctive campuses located in the coastal communities of Biddeford and Portland. UNE’s College of Osteopathic medicine is located on the Biddeford Campus and emphasizes the education of primary care physicians and is a leader in biomedical research. It is the only Maine-based medical school and the only osteopathic medical school in New England.
Ten percent of all practicing physicians in the state, 15 percent of Maine’s primary care physician workforce and 25 percent of physicians practicing in Maine’s rural areas are UNECOM graduates. The college has graduated more than 2,500 osteopathic physicians since its founding in 1978, and has been recognized by U.S. News & World Report for excellence in geriatric, rural and primary care medical education.
