IN THIS ISSUE

  • Reflecting, with gratitude for your support, on 12 Gold ways we cared in 2020
  • Grant awarded to myCovidMD to help expand testing access
  • Teladoc Health joins the Gold Corporate Council
  • The birth of the Gold Writing Workshop
  • New Gold Human InSight Webinar video: Why Doctors Write panel discussion
  • Deadline extended for 2021 Pearl Birnbaum Hurwitz Award nominees to Jan. 8
  • Nominees for the 2021 Vilcek-Gold Award due Jan. 24
  • Business leaders Pascal Montilus, Alice Vilma join Board of Trustees
  • Dr. Jillian Horton joins Canadian Board of Trustees
  • Watch now: Dr. Vivek Murthy & Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha's AAMC conversation
  • GHHS chapters: What are you planning for 2021 Solidarity Week?
  • The Patient & the Practitioner in the Age of Technology series 
As we bid 2020 goodbye, and hope for a healthier and more just 2021, we reflect on our contributions and our milestones, all crossed with your support. Thank you to all of you who are part of the healthcare community for caring so valiantly in this terrible pandemic, and thank you to all of you working to fight racism and support compassionate, inclusive care. We are sending you love and compassion and hopes for a better year ahead.

The Arnold P. Gold Foundation is pleased to announce a $10,000 grant to support the Shared Harvest Foundation’s myCovidMD initiative, which offers free COVID-19 testing in underserved and at-risk communities hardest hit by the pandemic.

MyCovidMD grew out of the work of the Shared Harvest Fund, which was was founded by three Black female doctors: Dr. Nana Afoh-Manin, Dr. Joanne Moreau, and Dr. Briana Decuir. Drs. Afoh-Manin and Moreau are members of the Gold Humanism Honor Society, which recognizes leaders in humanism in healthcare. 

The Arnold P. Gold Foundation is pleased to announce that Teladoc Health, the global leader in whole person virtual care, has joined the Gold Corporate Council, a group of leading healthcare corporations that are committed to humanism in healthcare. The Council members support the Gold Foundation’s mission and collaborate collectively and individually with the Gold Foundation on initiatives to ensure humanistic care – defined as compassionate, collaborative, and scientifically excellent.

"They came from childhoods marked by fields of flowers and grazing cows and from city streets swelling with immigrant dialects and the smell of arroz con pollo. They came from land surrounded by sea and from a 300-square-foot shelter where no family member could hide from the others. They came from a life of spiritual observance that brought peace and from where it smothered. They each grew to become medical students and doctors with varied specialties and a range of experience and training. They came, unknown to each other, to write and share their stories. They discovered their hearts were even larger than they had recognized."

In this new blog post, author Judith Hannan reflects on the 10 healthcare professionals who joined her, every Friday for two hours, in the first Gold Writing Workshop.

Read several pieces by the workshop participants, including: "For Aloys" by Dr. Elizabeth Toll, "I am from" by Gisel Bello, and "Not Born in the USA" by Dr. Vijay Rajput.
This Gold Human InSight Webinar spotlights the new documentary Why Doctors Write, with a panel discussion with film producer/director Ken Browne and two cast members, physician-writer Dr. Danielle Ofri and narrative medicine pioneer Dr. Rita Charon. The Gold Foundation supported Why Doctors Write when it was simply an idea back in 2016, seeding the concept with a grant. While the full documentary was screened in October to the Gold community, this recording includes the trailer.
The Gold Human InSight Webinars are virtual sessions that the Gold Foundation has hosted with its wonderful partners in humanism. The 2020 theme is “Care, Compassion, and Collaboration during the Dual Pandemic.” If you are interested in teaming up with the Gold Foundation on a webinar, or if your institution would like to screen the full-length Why Doctors Write, please contact Pia Pyne Miller apmiller@gold-foundation.org
Nominate a remarkable woman for the 2021 Pearl Birnbaum Hurwitz Humanism in Healthcare Award. This annual honor recognizes a woman who has advanced the well-being of at-risk or underserved populations through her scholarship, advocacy, leadership or work.

Past honorees include (clockwise from top left) Nani Cuadrado, Dr. Veda Johnson, Dr. Nancy Oriol, and Dr. Dinali Fernando.

Submit your nomination by Jan, 8, 2021
Nominate a foreign-born individual who has had an extraordinary impact on humanism in healthcare in the United States for the 2021 Vilcek-Gold Award for Humanism in Healthcare. Past honorees include Dr. Vivek Murthy and Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha. The award, created jointly by the Gold and Vilcek foundations, includes a $10,000 prize presented at the AAMC Annual Meeting.

Submit your nomination by Jan. 24, 2021.
The Arnold P. Gold Foundation Board Chair Richard C. Sheerr has announced two new appointees to the Board of Trustees: Pascal Montilus, a business leader and vice president at Colgate Palmolive with extensive experience in logistics, supply chain, growth, and customer satisfaction, Alice Vilma, MD, managing director on the Multicultural Client Strategy Team at Morgan Stanley and co-head of the Morgan Stanley Multicultural Innovation Lab with deep expertise in finance and capital markets.

The Gold Foundation for Humanistic Healthcare, Canada, Board Chair Dr. Richard Cruess has announced a new appointee to the Board of Trustees: Dr. Jillian Horton, an extraordinary physician leader and voice of humanistic care in Canada. The Gold Foundation for Humanistic Healthcare, Canada, is the Canadian affiliate of The Arnold P. Gold Foundation, a nonprofit organization based in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.

Dr. Vivek Murthy, 19th U.S. Surgeon General and author of the New York Times bestseller Together, spoke at the Association of American Medical Colleges’ 2020 Learn Serve Lead conference on November 17, where he was presented the 2020 Vilcek-Gold Award for Humanism in Healthcare. The award, jointly presented by the Gold and Vilcek foundations, recognizes foreign-born professionals who have made an extraordinary impact on humanism in U.S. healthcare. After his opening remarks, Dr. Murthy engaged in a wide-ranging conversation with Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, the 2019 Vilcek-Gold Award recipient. The title of this session was “Together: The Healing Power of the Human Connection.”

The annual Solidarity Week for Compassionate Patient Care is an opportunity for Gold Humanism Honor Society chapters to celebrate humanistic care and the patient connection.

This year, GHHS chapters are encouraged to use their leadership roles to start or extend conversations about racism and its impact on medicine through the 2020 GHHS National Initiative, Humanism and Healing: Structural Racism and its Impact on Medicine.

Join The Alpert Medical School for a virtual conference series on the impact of the electronic healthcare record and health information technologies on the patient-practitioner relationship. The conference is led in part by Dr. Elizabeth Toll, a GHHS Advisory Council Member, Gold grantee and long-time supporter.

The third of five sessions, "Relationships Matter More Than Ever, and They Are Changing; Addressing Disparities," will be held on Jan. 8. CME credits are available.

As 2020 draws to a close, thank you for remembering the Gold Foundation in your year-end giving.
Your support makes our work possible!
Connect with us on social media