Caroline Harada, M.D., associate dean for strategic initiatives in the Heersink School of Medicine Department of Medical Education, has been awarded the 2024 Arnold P. Gold Foundation Humanism in Medicine Award by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC).
Caroline Harada, M.D.
The Arnold P. Gold Foundation Humanism in Medicine Award honors one medical school faculty member in the United States who embodies and promotes humanitarian characteristics such as ethics, empathy, service, and compassion in their teaching and advising.
Harada's work at UAB exemplifies a focus on improving health care equity and educating students to create patient-centered environments.
In 2015, Harada helped establish the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship of Alabama, which allows graduate students to connect with mentors and complete real-world projects to improve their community’s well-being. The following year, she established the Health Equity Scholar Program to teach medical students how to establish, promote, and maintain health equity in their thoughts, decision-making processes, and communities.
Harada also created and currently directs the Heersink School of Medicine Office of Service Learning. Under her leadership, the program has expanded to include 11 integrated service experiences within the curriculum, 17 student-led service organizations, and a student-run free clinic.
In 2019, Harada became director of the Patient, Doctor, and Society course, a foundational course for first-year medical students. This course takes a community-focused perspective to help students adopt physicians' professional identity and understand that it includes more than the physician-patient interaction. Under her leadership, the course transformed from the lowest-rated preclinical class to one of the most highly rated.
“I would never have received this award if it weren’t for the amazing students who nominated me and my patients, who inspire me to be a better doctor and teacher every day,” Harada said. “My team in the Department of Medical Education is one of the most collaborative, creative, and generous groups I have ever had the pleasure of working with, and any of them could have won this award as easily as I. It is impossible not to be humanistic when surrounded by colleagues who exemplify the award criteria of positive mentoring, community service, compassion, collaboration, and commitment to success for all students.”
Recently, as director of Project AHEAD (Advancing Health Equity through Alabama’s Doctors), Harada worked with a team of students, staff, and faculty to introduce new curriculum content for eight preclinical courses, a lunch-and-learn lecture series, and a social determinants of health grand rounds series for clinical students.
“Dr. Harada’s efforts for our school, belief in our students, and commitment to her patients cannot be overstated,” said Craig Hoesley, M.D., senior associate dean for Medical Education. “The work she’s done through the Office of Service Learning has had a continual positive impact as we fulfill the UAB Heersink School of Medicine’s mission to its students and patients throughout this region. I am proud that she has been awarded this recognition and know it will only motivate her to make more of an impact in the years to come.”
Harada will be honored during a virtual 2024 AAMC Awards Recognition Event on Oct. 30, 2024, as well as at Learn Serve Lead: The AAMC Annual Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia.