Cardiologist Oscar E. Starobin, MD, the inaugural recipient of the Chancellor’s Medal for Clinical Excellence, will welcome incoming School of Medicine students as the keynote speaker at the White Coat ceremony on Friday, Sept. 20, at 3:30 p.m. in the Sherman Center First Floor Atrium. During the ceremony, students will be presented with a white coat embroidered with their names to mark the start of their educational journey at UMass Medical School.
Dr. Starobin, professor of medicine, is director of the Adult Congenital Heart Program and the Cardiac Fellows Clinic at UMMS. He is widely regarded as a clinical expert in congenital heart disease in adults.
When UMMS first opened, Starobin was already an established and well-respected clinician in Worcester. He volunteered to teach third-year medicine and was appointed interim chief of cardiology and chief of cardiology at Memorial Hospital. Over the course of his career, he served as chief of cardiology at every major hospital in Worcester.
In presenting Starobin with the Chancellor’s Award for Clinical Teaching in September 2012, Chancellor Michael F. Collins said, “Had Norman Rockwell had the chance to know you, I am certain that you could have served as the model for one of his paintings of doctors. Ever attentive to the needs of your patients and mindful of the desire to learn that is embodied in the determination of your students, residents and faculty colleagues, you have lived a life that is a model, which all of us who admire you can follow.”
Starobin has received many other UMMS awards, including the Lamar Soutter Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Medical Education, Teacher of the Year and numerous Outstanding Medical Educator awards. In 2010, the Massachusetts Medical Society honored him with the Grant V. Rodkey, MD, Award, which recognizes physicians who have made significant contributions to medical students, both in the hospital and in organized medicine.
Starobin graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1954, where he was awarded the Henry A. Christian Award as the highest-ranking student. He then began a 59-year relationship with Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), first as an intern in medicine and as a resident in the cardiac department. Today he holds the position of clinical assistant in medicine at both MGH and Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Starobin is also a renowned wildlife and landscape photographer. His photographs have long adorned the halls of the Department of Medicine.
A relatively new tradition for medical students, the White Coat Ceremony was started in 1993 by the Arnold P. Gold Foundation at Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons. The tradition emphasizes the importance of both scientific excellence and compassionate care for the patient, according to the foundation.
