Terence I. Doran, M.D., Ph.D., who has directed the care of hundreds of children with AIDS during his career at the Health Science Center, is the recipient of the 2005 Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award presented by the Arnold P. Gold Foundation and the Health Science Center Medical School.
Dr. Doran, an alumnus of the Medical School, is director of the South Texas AIDS Network in the division of community pediatrics at the Health Science Center. Each year since 1998, one faculty member and one student have been selected to receive the Tow Award. Michelle Brand, M.D., a resident in rehabilitation medicine, is this year’s student honoree.
“He embodies compassion, effective communication and listening,” said Thomas Mayes, M.D., M.B.A., interim dean of the Medical School and professor and chairman of pediatrics.
Dr. Doran recalled that on his first day as a resident in the 1980s, he saw 10 patients. One little boy had AIDS and would die five weeks later. “This was when AIDS was barely on our radar screens,” Dr. Doran said. “We provided comfort and care when there was not a lot to offer. This was my real start in medicine.”
At the Health Science Center’s annual White Coat Ceremony to welcome first-year medical students, Dr. Doran dispensed the advice that has drawn him close to many families. “Try to treat people with respect despite their circumstances,” he said. “Being ill is a degrading experience. Put yourself in patients’ place and help them maintain their dignity.”
Even when students have invested two years of their lives in classroom and have mastered medical terminology, they should “talk to people like they are people,” Dr. Doran said. “In AIDS, the terms are CD4 counts and viral loads, but what parents really want to know is, ‘Is my child going to die?’ Stop and listen.
“You’re going to learn about cancer cells, what they look like, etc.,” he told students. “That’s well and good, but you learn the art of medicine when a 12-year-old who has relapsed for the third time with leukemia looks into your eyes and asks, ‘Am I going to die?’”
Dr. Doran said patients trust physicians with information about the most intimate part of their lives. For that reason, health care professionals must treat patients with respect and prove themselves to be deserving of it in return.
Contact:
Will SansomPhone: (210) 567-2579
E-mail:
Sansom@uthscsa.edu
