WHO:                Approximately 60 first-year students entering the Mercer University School of Medicine.

WHAT:             Will participate in the School of Medicine's White Coat Ceremony, where they will be "cloaked" in their first white coats and get their first lesson in compassion. Dr. Edwin W. Grimsley, professor of internal medicine and program director of the Internal Medicine Residency Program in Mercer’s School of Medicine, will be the keynote speaker.

WHEN:             Saturday, Aug. 11, 3 p.m.

WHERE:           University Center Arena, University Center Drive, Macon, Ga.

WHY:                Although compassion has always played a significant role in patient care, it has traditionally not been a formal part of medical school curriculum. Through the White Coat Ceremony, Mercer School of Medicine helps to clarify for the incoming students the true meaning of humanism in medicine—that as physicians they should not only strive to cure their patients, but to care for them.

In addition to the white coats the students will receive during the ceremony, each will be given pins inscribed with the words "humanism in medicine" from the Arnold P. Gold Foundation and copies of the book On Doctoring provided by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Media interested in covering the event should contact Richard L. Cameron at 478-301-5500.