Behind the White Coat

As medicine heeds the call of patient-centered care, it is easy to overlook the other person in the clinic room. Physicians, like patients, have stories. Within the everyday demands of clinical practice, however, their stories are seldom invited and remain untold.

In this episode of Defining Moments, medical students Libby Hill and Sumedha Kappagantula join host Dr. Joe Bianco to share their experiences as Executive Producers of Behind the White Coat, an annual storytelling event at Ohio University’s Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine. Founded in 2019 by medical students, Behind the White Coat invites students, physicians, medical educators, and staff to reveal their defining moments on the path toward medicine. The conversation invites us to reimagine the white coat as a blank page, ready to receive and reveal our innermost stories.

You can learn more about Behind the White Coat and view story archives from previous years here: https://www.ohio.edu/medicine/behind-white-coat. To learn more about the Open Book Project referenced in this episode, listen to Lynn Harter’s conversation with Dr. Tracy Shaub: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/defining-moments-podcast-conversations-about-health/id1456643447?i=1000445540298 and read the accompanying Health Communication article: https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2018.1551302