Q&A with 2026 National Humanism in Medicine Medalist Dr. Leon McDougle
Dr. Leon McDougle
On June 8th, the Gold Foundation will bestow the 2026 National Humanism in Medicine Medals at its Gold Standard Gala. One of them will be awarded to Dr. Leon McDougle, national leader in health equity and access, past President of the National Medical Association, Professor at The Ohio State University, and Associate Vice President of Community Health, Mentorship, & Engagement at the OSU Wexner Medical Center. Dr. McDougle has also been a recipient of the Gold Foundation’s Picker Gold GME Challenge Grant and the AAMC’s Louis W. Sullivan, MD Award.
We are delighted that Dr. McDougle agreed to share a few of his thoughts with us on humanism in healthcare in this Q&A.
Why does humanism in healthcare matter to you?
Humanism in medicine is very important.
A colleague of mine, Dr. Greta Winbush, a Professor of Gerontology at Central State University, a nearby HBCU in Ohio, coined the term “mutuality.” I really love that term. It asks the physician to work towards earning respect of the patient in communication, and then with that earned respect, reciprocal respect more than likely will be given by the patient.
That mutuality is really important regarding communication with our patients and their families, and it helps build trust.
Tell us about a time at your organization, or in your own life when you felt the power as a human connection in healthcare.
I’ve served as a family physician on the near east side of Columbus, Ohio, for over 20 years, and in fact, yesterday, a new patient visited my office to establish care, and he shared a story with me. He was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma, and he expressed his great concern about being informed by his cancer doctor that he had six months to live. He went on to say he found a new cancer doctor, and guess what? That was six years ago!
So from a physician’s perspective, and the communication and the therapeutic relationship that we develop with patients, it’s not my role to put a time limit on someone’s life. It’s not my role to share such negativity. It’s my role to listen to them and to work with them to improve their health and well-being.
And we just had a great conversation. We went on to talk about his favorite football team. Taking the time to learn about what’s going on with a person beyond their illness is so important.
Another example I can provide: Over this past year, I had the opportunity to serve an older person who had just been discharged from the hospital. She was around 70 years old and accompanied by her granddaughter with the complaint of feeling lightheaded and nearly fainting since being discharged from the hospital.
And so imagine this: You are hospitalized for a serious ailment, and you’re sent home with about 12 or more bottles of medications. And in going through her medication list and the bottles that she brought in, none of those bottles on the label stated what the medication was for. It took me about an hour going through her medications, rewriting them, putting what the medication was for, whether it was for high blood pressure or for diabetes. There was a duplication in some of the prescriptions that I helped to eliminate.
I would say over 90% of the prescriptions I see don’t include this information on the bottle. If you’re prescribing a medicine for high blood pressure, put “for high blood pressure.” If it’s for diabetes, put “for diabetes.” If it’s for cholesterol lowering, put “for cholesterol lowering.” Most of our patients don’t have a pharmacology degree. It will help so much in building that bond, that mutuality that I spoke to earlier, that trust with patients.
How do you feel about receiving the Gold Foundation’s National Humanism in Medicine Medal?
I am so honored to receive this award and recognition from the Gold Foundation. Dr. Kathy Reeves and Dr. Sandra Gold — I see them at the annual meetings, and I’m so impressed by all the leadership excellence exhibited in support of building humanism in medicine.
This award is really acknowledgement of the collaborators that I have the honor to work with at The Ohio State University College of Medicine and Medical Center, at the Association of American Medical Colleges, otherwise known as the AAMC, the National Medical Association, the W. Montague Cobb/NMA Health Institute and the Rainbow PUSH coalition. Thank you so much for honoring and recognizing our work. It is truly humbling.
Looking back, is there any advice that you wish you could have given yourself as you began your career?
I would advise myself that imagination, collaboration, and hope are the keys to career success and allows healthcare providers to advance humanism and medicine and make a difference in this world.
What advice do you have for fellow leaders who are interested in embedding more humanism in their organization?
My advice to leaders would be to innovate to elevate working and learning environments.
I’ve had the good fortune to serve as a faculty member in academic medicine for over 30 years now, and there’s always some new challenge over the horizon, as we are experiencing now. It calls for innovation to elevate, to navigate these uncertainties and also allow us to share a vision that people can believe in and still have hope that our calling as healthcare providers will continue and will be important to the communities we serve despite other circumstances, despite changes in insurance coverage, despite threats to science.
So we’re going to innovate to meet these challenges, using science and humanism as the foundations for success.
Learn more about the Gold Standard Gala, and join us in New York City on June 8th to celebrate Dr. McDougle and his fellow honorees, Dr. Deborah Trautman and Mr. Stanley Bergman.
