At the 2024 Jordan J. Cohen Humanism in Medicine Lecture, a beloved annual session at the AAMC (Association of American Medial Colleges) Annual Meeting, speaker Dr. Kimberly Manning had the packed room in stitches with laughter and then, moments later, wishing they had packed extra tissues, as tears flowed fast from her vivid stories chronicling real human moments in healthcare.
Dr Kimberly Manning delivered the 2024 Jordan J. Cohen Humanism in Medicine Lecture at the AAMC in Atlanta.
In her talk titled “Wisdom at the Bedside,” in Atlanta on Sunday, Nov. 10, 2024, Dr. Manning shared heartfelt stories and lessons she learned from patients — all steeped in being present and connected.
“If you ask anybody,” she said, “the most junior student to the most senior faculty member anywhere, what’s your richest teachable moment? Where did you get the most wisdom? Where did you grow the most? What’s the thing that changed you as a doctor, as a future doctor?”
“It was something at the bedside with the patient,” Dr. Manning emphasized. “It wasn’t something you read in a paper. It wasn’t something that you got off of an algorithm. It wasn’t something that you typed into Copilot that spit back some information to you in two seconds. It was something with a human being. And that is really what humanism does, and that is something that cannot be replicated.”
Dr. Jordan J. Cohen and Dr. Kimberly Manning in Atlanta at the 2024 AAMC Annual Meeting
Her stories spanned a patient who was a chatterbox about his pup Jojo to a patient who knew how make a proper banana pudding. Each unique person and their personality came to life with Dr. Manning’s inimitable storytelling. And each person provided offered a lesson, too, for care and connection then and in the future.
Dr. Manning is a Professor at Emory University School of Medicine, an internist/hospitalist at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, and a Gold Trustee. She also serves Vice Chair of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for the Department of Medicine, co-hosts The Human Doctor Podcast with Dr. Ashley McMullen, and has a following of more than 100k fans on Twitter/X as gradydoctor. Her work has been published in The Lancet, JAMA, Annals of Internal Medicine, Academic Medicine, and many other outlets.
A few Dr. Manning’s “Take Home Messages” from her 2024 Jordan J. Cohen Lecture:
- There is always an occasion for humanism
- Three minutes is a little but it can mean a lot.
- Soak up wisdom at the bedside.
- Be brave.
- Then help somebody else be brave.
- And do for yourself what you’d have others do.
- Show up with your full presence and heart.
The lecture, jointly hosted by the Gold Foundation and the AAMC, is named after Dr. Jordan J. Cohen, who was the President and CEO of AAMC for many years, served as the Board Chair of the Gold Foundation, and is now a Gold Trustee. He is also a mentor and hero of Dr. Manning. He was in the audience, which Dr. Manning said meant so much to her.
Her talk ended with a standing ovation, and then Dr. Cohen kicked off the Q&A. But first, he addressed Dr. Manning: “One of the greatest joys of a mentor is when a mentee becomes a mentor. And you have become my mentor.”
Read the AAMC News’ story of Dr. Manning’s talk: “It is always a good idea to go and be with a patient.”
