It is impossible to follow that. But we are so excited to have President Limayem join us and return here to his home at USF. I think you can see the energy, the passion, the humor and it just, I can tell you, it has been a very exciting two months…nine days…six hours. He really is remarkable.
Welcome. It is an honor to address you on this joyous occasion.
Let me begin by thanking our outstanding faculty, staff, donors, and alumni for their dedication to our program.
I would also especially like to express our gratitude, and my gratitude, to Frank and Carol Morsani. As I’ve often said to them, we literally would not be here without them and their name is on the wall, so I do take it very seriously and I know I have to report to them. But what amazing bosses. They are truly remarkable people — generous, kind, and good. It has been such a treat to get to know them. And we’re so excited to have you in the audience.
Today I also would like to, once again, welcome our new president, President Moez Limayem. We are especially excited that this is his first graduation. We know there will be many more to come, and as I said, I think you now get a sense of the excitement that he brings to this university.
Let me also recognize the family, friends, and loved ones of this remarkable class. You have been our students’ advocates and principal supporters. Thank you for making their success possible. And again, a hand from your children.
But most importantly, please join me in welcoming the 52nd graduating class of the Morsani College of Medicine, our class of 2026.
We know that the past four years have been among the most challenging — and exhausting — of your life.
I’m sure that there were many days when graduation seemed like a distant shimmering vision, an oasis in the distance.
But you made it here! Your dedication and diligence have turned vision into reality. And you should feel incredibly proud upon reaching this milestone.
Today, we pause and celebrate your success.
You have proven to be an amazingly successful class — and while I say this every year, and this is my 11th graduation, so I’ve said it at least 11 times. You are the most successful class in the Morsani College of Medicine yet, and it’s absolutely true. A remarkable group of individuals.
Your outstanding academic achievements, your volunteer service and your “stampede” to “wrangling” amazing residencies in your Match Day “rodeo” impressed us all. They will know what I’m talking about and some of you may as well. We had our best Match ever. The theme was rodeo and they dressed me up as a cowboy. It’s a humiliation I go through every year, and I consider myself lucky. I’ve been a leprechaun, an astronaut, and — a cowboy was okay.
As has been pointed out, you are graduating from the Morsani College of Medicine at an exciting time for all of us. You heard, we are Tier 1 in U.S. News, but in addition to being the top 16 in the country, we recently were recognized by the Center for Accountability in Medicine as number one in the country on their Medical Excellence Index — which is, in fact, not only were we number one, but we were the only medical school in the country to have a perfect score.
But while today is an exciting moment in MCOM’s history, we stand at the dawn of something larger.
This is a new day in medicine: the start of an era of profound technological advances. A.I., robotics and personalized medicine are all going to revolutionize how medicine is practiced and will ultimately transform how people stay healthy.
Already at TGH, AI is helping to shorten patient hospital stays and to detect early sepsis and HF before they become deadly threats. AI is transforming radiology and pathology and how we access the medical literature.
In our practices, it is generating the EMR chart so we can fully engage with our patients and not be looking at the computer screen.
It’s also reducing the mountain of physician non-value added work, eliminating 20 hours of work a week in after-hours charting and administrative tasks.
All this is contributing to rapid reductions in physician burn-out, after two decades of increases.
Even more dramatic changes are in the offing and probably beyond what we can imagine.
A new generation of robots will perform microsurgeries with precision far greater than human hands can do, and editing DNA will allow us to cure many diseases that were unimaginable.
All this progress surely will save lives. It will also be massively disruptive. Some medical tasks and even jobs will go away. Other challenges I can’t even begin to foresee but will undoubtedly arise.
It will be up to you, to your generation of physicians, to adapt to this brave new world.
Now, we know that healthcare in general and physicians in particular have not always reacted well to change. Just look at how long it took – and some of us are still having problems with it – with the introduction of electronic medical records.
Or how 19th century doctors rejected Semmelweis’ germ theory which could have saved thousands of new mothers’ lives by simply having doctors wash their hands before delivering a baby.
But I believe you will choose a bolder path.
I believe that you will embrace this era of transformative change and learn to wield its powerful tools.
I believe this because I know you’ve learned right here at the Morsani College of Medicine how to embrace obstacles and how to practice lifelong learning. They’ve probably heard those 2 themes from me at least 2,000 times since they’ve started.
But also because you have the skills and mental habits you’ve mastered here:
· You have the critical thinking and curating skills to recognize which AI results are appropriate
· You have the informed judgement skills to rapidly interpret AI results at the bedside to correctly diagnose and expeditiously treat your patients
· And you have the compassion and empathy that remain the heart and soul of medicine and provide the comfort that no machine can ever replace.
Use these skills consistently and you will be the physicians who chart this future and bring us into a new era of healing that only yesterday we couldn’t possibly have imagined.
Now you are ready to step into this exciting and noble journey — as outstanding physicians. Again, congratulations!