AAMC Humanism Nomination
John Schumann, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine
By Mike Churchwell, MS 2
Humanism in Medicine
Dr. John Schumann, MD; Assistant Professor of Medicine, Section of General Internal Medicine, received the University of Chicago nomination for the AAMC Humanism in Medicine Award in October. He was recognized for this achievement at the Gold Humanism Honor Society on March 8.
Last year, it was my pleasure to nominate Dr. Schumann for the AAMC Humanism in Medicine Award. Two members of the Pritzker branch of the AAMC, Martha Johnson, currently a 3rd year at Pritzker, and Lavanya Kondapalli, Class of 2006 and now an internal medicine intern here, asked me to join them in selecting a candidate to represent Pritzker.
The award seeks to recognize faculty who exemplify humanism through five qualities and characteristics: positive mentoring skills, involvement in community service, compassion and sensitivity, collaboration with students and patients and modeling the ethics of the profession.
Dr. Schumann was an obvious choice. We asked our fellow students for their help in writing the award and we were inundated with stories from students across all four years. Now, as then, I will let their words speak to his qualities.
Students told us how “he…placed utmost importance on providing primary care to people of all walks of life,” and that when he is “an energetic volunteer” at the [Maria Shelter] free clinic, that he “takes time with each patient to discuss not just the chief complaint but how the patient can navigate the health care system to get beyond barriers to health care.”
One student told us that Dr. Schumann “spoke to us about the ‘social responsibility‘ of the physician and how our ethics from other areas of our lives can fit into our practices.” She concluded that “I think he is the epitome of the socially-patient-aware modern physician.”
We read about his gentle and compassionate nature in his actions. Some were small and some were very big: “I was going through many difficult issues, professionally and personally… classmates told me Dr. Schumann would be good to talk to. I emailed him and he immediately responded saying he’d be happy to chat…I can say that our conversation was the motivating force that encouraged me to make some dramatic changes in my life.”
Perhaps the greatest indication of his contributions to the student body are mirrored in the following: “John Schumann is the type of physician I aspire to become.”
