Patch Adams, M.D., to deliver Boonshoft School of Medicine commencement address

Patch Adams, M.D., the real man behind the hit movie starring Robin Williams, will give the commencement address, entitled “Making the Practice of Medicine a Beautiful Experience.”

After dedicating four or more years to intense study and rigorous, specialized training, the 95 members of the Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine class of 2012 will be awarded M.D. degrees during the school’s commencement ceremony on May 25.

In addition to the conferring of degrees, the evening event, which will take place at 6:30 p.m. in the Schuster Performing Arts Center in downtown Dayton, will include a “hooding ceremony” in which graduates will receive traditional regalia denoting their status and profession. The graduates will take a professional oath to mark the start of their medical careers and sign a registry to commemorate their first use of the initials M.D. following their names.

This July, the graduates will move on to prestigious residencies and receive advanced training in the medical specialty of their choice. The new physicians will be entering outstanding residency training programs in Dayton, throughout Ohio, and across the country, including Case Western Reserve, the Cleveland Clinic, Stanford University and the University of Chicago Medical Center.

More than one third of the Wright State graduates will remain in Ohio during residency, and more than half (52.6 percent) will enter a primary care field such as family medicine, internal medicine or pediatrics.

Patch Adams, M.D., the real man behind the hit movie Patch Adams, starring Robin Williams, will give the commencement address, entitled “Making the Practice of Medicine a Beautiful Experience.” A believer that laughter, joy and creativity are an integral part of the healing process, Adams is a medical doctor, a clown, a performer and a social activist who has devoted 30 years to changing America’s health care system.

Each year the graduating class presents an Appreciation Award to recognize an individual or organization for significant contributions to the medical school. The class of 2012 will honor the Kettering Fund for their exceptional collaboration and partnership in support of research and medical education at the Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine.

Over the years, the Kettering fund has generously provided more than $3,807,000 in funding for the Boonshoft School of Medicine, including a $1 million scholarship fund to support geriatric medical education. Kettering Fund gifts also helped establish the medical school’s Center for Brain Research (now known as the WSU & PHP Neuroscience Institute) and the Lifespan Health Research Center and provided new state-of-the-art instruments for its Proteomics Analysis Laboratory.