The White Coat Ceremony for The University of Texas Medical School at Houston’s Class of 2010.

Approximately 220 new medical students – the largest class the UT Medical School has ever enrolled! – will sign an ethical pledge and take the “Oath of Hippocrates.”  Also, the students will put on their white coats for the first time, marking the first milestone in their quest to become physicians dedicated to excellence in patient care.

Keith Hoots, M.D., professor of pediatrics at the UT Houston Medical School and M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, medical director of the Gulf States Hemophilia and Thrombophilia Center and division director of Pediatric Hematology, will be the keynote speaker. Hoots is the 2006 recipient of the Arnold P. Gold Foundation’s prestigious Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award.

6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 9.

Edwin Hornberger Conference Center, 2151 W. Holcombe Blvd.

“The White Coat Ceremony is the initial step across the threshold of a career as a physician. It symbolizes each student’s commitment to acquire the knowledge and medical skills to treat disease and marry these to their own compassionate dedication to individuals who need their care,” Hoots says.