Gold Humanism Honor Society

The Gold Humanism Honor Society (GHHS) is a community of medical students, physicians, and other leaders who have been recognized for their compassionate care. GHHS reinforces and supports the human connection in healthcare, which is essential for the health of patients and clinicians.

GHHS is an active organization with a diverse membership. GHHS members in medical school lead initiatives that foster humanism, and GHHS members throughout their careers are expected to be humanistic leaders. A JAMA Network Open study of more than 50,000 medical students showed that GHHS is equitable in representation across Black, white, Hispanic, Native American, LGB, and female students, which is rare for a medical honor.

GHHS now has more than 180 chapters in medical schools and residency programs and more than 45,000 members. GHHS hosts many initiatives and events that are open to all, including Solidarity Week for Compassionate Care, Thank a Resident Day, the Gold Connection podcast, and Golden Glimmers. We are grateful to all members for their advocacy for humanism in healthcare. Thank you for your compassionate care – you are making a difference!

Apply to join the GHHS Advisory Council

The GHHS Nominating Committee is actively seeking Trainees (Student, Resident, Fellow), Chapter Advisors, and Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine awardees who have a serious interest in the flourishing of humanism in healthcare through the Gold Humanism Honor Society to serve on the GHHS Advisory Council. Apply or nominate a GHHS member today!

Apply to join a GHHS Sub-Committee

Consider deepening your role in GHHS by applying to join one of the four GHHS Advisory Council sub-committees: Chapter Affairs, Wellness, Program, Humanism in Practice: Through Residency and Beyond! Applications are now open and will close April 23 at 5pm ET. Learn more about the work of the committees and apply today!

Spring Cleaning for GHHS Chapter Advisors

GHHS would like to express our sincere thanks to all of the chapter advisors, chapter liaisons, and student affairs personnel that keep our 188 UME chapters running smoothly. As many of our fourth-year GHHS inductees begin to transition into residency and the academic year comes to an end, we ask that chapter leadership help support the continued connection of GHHS members with the national office by:

  1. Encouraging your students to log into the Gold Member Portal and update their profile with a personal email address and residency match information.
  2. Uploading your chapter members’ match information into the GHHS Residency Match Form. It is critical that we capture this information, so that we can remain connected with your chapter members after they graduate and support them during this transition. You will receive your original induction spreadsheet over email from ghhs@gold-foundation.org. We ask that you complete the blank columns with match information and upload it to the GHHS Residency Match form. Match information is sent exclusively to GHHS Advisors at their residency institution to allow your students to stay connected to humanism in healthcare and to find their GHHS home in their match community.
  3. Share your chapter’s programming with the National Office. As your new inductees begin to plan their GHHS programming, we want to make sure that we are also capturing the work of your graduating members. Please complete this Annual Programming Form upon your school’s graduation.
  4. Encourage your student members to apply to join a sub-committee of the GHHS Advisory Council. 
  5. If you’ve selected new student leaders, please share them with us here.

2024 Gold Humanism Summit

Thank you to our amazing sponsors, exhibitors, speakers, and attendees for making the Summit a huge success! 

The 2024 Gold Humanism Summit: The Person in Front of You convened our many community members to explore best practices and strategies to fuel change and inspire action from Thursday, Feb. 29 to Saturday, March 2, in Atlanta, Georgia. All supporters of humanism in healthcare were welcome.

Learn more about the Summit.

Announcing the 2023-2024 GHHS Annual Initiative: The Gold Compass

We are excited to announce the 2023-2024 Gold Humanism Honor Society Annual Initiative: The Gold Compass: Using Humanism to Navigate Different Perspectives and Create Human-Centered Care.

This initiative invites GHHS members to act as leaders in creating opportunities or modeling the search for ways to interact with openness in civil discourse. Mitigating this divide—the separation we feel within ourselves and with one another—may have the power to reinforce the most essential components of what it means to be both a human and a healer.

We look to GHHS members, exemplars of humanism, to help humanize differing perspectives in healthcare. The goal of this initiative is to acknowledge that we live in a time with complex viewpoints and to seek to cultivate understanding and elevate the idea that within discourse lives humanity. Learn more and share your plans.