Taking Humanism Back to the Bedside.

After attending The Arnold P. Gold Foundation’s “Barriers to Sustaining Humanism in Medicine” symposium in 1996, Steve Miller and Richard Sarkin proposed a Traveling Fellows program for the foundation. The program was approved, and Steve and Rich served as the program’s 2 Traveling Fellows until their untimely death on October 19, 2004. Steve and Rich, both Council on Medical Student Education in Pediatrics presidents known for their creativity and charisma, brought to our collective consciousness the need to promote humanism in our work as clinicians, teachers, and role models. When they died, Steve’s Chair at Columbia, John Driscoll, urged that their memory be honored by devoting time each October to promoting humanism. It is in this spirit that COMSEP Perspectives provides the following article. – Kenneth B. Roberts, MD