The Gold Connection is a podcast created and produced by members of the Gold Humanism Honor Society. Gold Connection: A GHHS Podcast launched in August 2020 in conjunction with the debut of the 2020 GHHS National Initiative: Humanism and Healing: Structural Racism and its Impact on Medicine. Subscribe at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Anchor, Overcast, RadioPublic, and many other podcast platforms, or listen below.
Episode 3: 2021 Solidarity Week: Honoring Compassionate Patient Care During a Pandemic
In Episode 3, we look to the 2021 GHHS Solidarity Week for Compassionate Patient Care, an annual celebration of humanism that will look a bit different this year, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Gold Humanism Honor Society (GHHS) Director Louisa Tvito interviews GHHS chapter leaders and advisors about their Solidarity Week plans, speaking to members from The Ohio State University’s Medical School and University of South Alabama’s College of Medicine, as well as the Gold Foundation head of communications about how to leverage social media in this year full of social distancing and added precautions. Guests include Rana Elgazzar, President of OSU’s GHHS Chapter, and Allison Akers, OSU Solidarity Week Chairwoman, and from the University of South Alabama, Karen Braswell, GHHS Chapter Advisor, and Tyler King, GHHS Social Coordinator.
Dr. Hellen Ransom produced and edited this episode.
To learn more about Solidarity Week, visit our GHHS Solidarity Week page and our 2021 tweet collection.
Episode 2: “What Does Humanism in Mean & Why is It More Important Than Ever” with Dr. George Thibault
This episode features Dr. George Thibault’s powerful Jordan J. Cohen Humanism in Medicine Lecture, presented at the Association of American Medical Colleges’ Annual Meeting in 2018. Dr. Thibault delves into the history of humanism and present-day attacks on humanism, and leaves us all with this powerful reminder: “It will be hard to have humanism in medicine if there is no humanism in the world around us.”
Dr. Thibault is a Gold Foundation Trustee and Gold Humanism Honor Society member. He is the immediate past president of the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation. Previously, he served as the Vice President of Clinical Affairs at Partners Healthcare System in Boston and Director of the Academy at Harvard Medical School.
This episode is hosted by Dr. Hellen Ransom, member of the Gold Humanism Honor Society Advisory Council.
Episode 1: Introducing the 2020 GHHS National Initiative -> Humanism and Healing: Structural Racism and its Impact on Medicine
The first episode opens the conversation about the 2020 GHHS National Initiative, Humanism and Healing: Structural Racism and its Impact on Medicine, and features a variety of perspectives from a GHHS chapter advisor, two medical students and GHHS members, and a Gold Foundation leader. All are members of the GHHS Advisory Council.
Listen above, or listen on Spotify or through Anchor.
Hellen Ransom, DHCE | Producer & Editor
Hellen Ransom, DHCE, HEC-C (Producer and Editor of Episode #1) is an Assistant Professor and Clinical Ethicist at The Brody School of Medicine (BSOM) at East Carolina University, where she’s the Faculty Advisor for BSOM’s Chapter of Gold Humanism Honor Society.



Books:
- Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, Susan Horowitz Cain, 2012. Listen to her TED Talk.
Articles & Resources:
- “The Struggle and Triumph of America’s First Black Doctors” in The Atlantic
- Bryan Stevenson: It’s time to change the narrative around race and poverty — A Q&A with AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges) and the civil rights lawyer and author of Just Mercy, who spoke at Learn Serve Lead 2019: The AAMC Annual Meeting
- “The Power of Proximity” talk by Bryan Stevenson
- Project Implicit — Implicit Association Tests on a variety of topics
- TEDEd cartoon on Plato and the Allegory of the Cave
- National Institutes of Health: Opening Doors: The History of Contemporary African American Academic Surgeons
- Latino Medical Student Association
- Student National Medical Association
- “How med schools, residency programs can diversify doctor workforce” — article from the American Medical Association
- “Doctors Should Learn to Fight Injustice, Not Just Pandemics“ — a Medscape Commentary
- Breaking the Bias — a podcast from Consciously Unbiased
Social Media:
- Woke Doctors — Instagram account
- Twitter thread started by Dr. Mahad Minhas to encourage physicians to offer to mentor and advise fourth-year underrepresented minority medical students, by specialty