Ceremonies & Events

The History of the White Coat Ceremony

The Arnold P. Gold Foundation founded The White Coat Ceremony at commencement exercises at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1993, where Dr. Arnold Gold has been a teacher and pediatric neurologist for more than forty years.

When The Gold Foundation initiated commencement awards in 1991 for a faculty member and a student who best demonstrate both humanistic care and clinical excellence, Dr. Gold noted that Columbia’s medical students recite the Hippocratic Oath at commencement. This noble 2,500 year old tradition obligates new doctors to high professional standards for patient care and the practice of medicine.

As Dr. Gold witnessed the P&S graduation ceremony each year and the recitation by students of the Hippocratic Oath as they accept the obligations of the medical profession, he told his wife, Dr. Sandra Gold, that the oath is taken four years too late. It is during medical school that students experience their initial contacts with patients and establish their professional orientation. Hippocrates administered an oath to students before their medical studies began, not after they were completed.

The Gold Foundation believes that medical students should be given well defined guidelines regarding the expectations and responsibilities appropriate for the medical profession prior to their first day of education and training. This is what inspired the Gold Foundation to begin advocacy and sponsorship of what has become the “White Coat Ceremony.”

The White Coat Ceremony at P&S occurs during orientation week of the first year. The ceremony and recitation of the Hippocratic Oath provide rituals to mark the passage of each student into the medical society.