School of Medicine Diploma Day 2024

The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine’s Diploma Day Ceremony will be held on Sunday, May 19, beginning at 2 p.m. at Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall, 4141 Fifth Avenue.

Parking options include the Soldiers and Sailors Parking Garage, accessible via the entrance at 4390 Bigelow Blvd. Street parking is also available.

Staying home? You can watch the live stream on YouTube.

Meet commencement speaker Jeanne Marrazzo, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health.

Check back on this page for the latest updates.

Today is your day

Follow along live and celebrate the Class of 2024 on the School of Medicine’s Instagram account.

And don’t forget to share your Diploma Day memories with us on social media by using #PittMedDiplomaDay24!

Be sure to subscribe to Pitt Med magazine and keep in the know about the goings on at your alma mater.

Modern-Day Hippocrates

In addition to reciting the traditional Hippocratic Oath during their White Coat Ceremony on Aug. 16, 2020, the members of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine’s Class of 2024 started a new tradition by writing their own class oath to acknowledge their ever-evolving responsibilities as physicians.

All 149 incoming students helped draft the oath. Nathalie Chen, a graduating member of the Class of 2024, told Pitt Med magazine in 2021: “Patients are no longer viewed just in terms of their symptoms and sicknesses. Physicians now seek to understand each patient’s narrative and how their socioeconomic status may impact their health,”

University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine Class of 2024 Oath

As the entering class of 2020, we start our medical journey amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and a national civil rights movement reinvigorated by the killings of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery. We honor the 700,000+ lives lost to COVID-19, despite the sacrifices of health care workers.

We recognize the fundamental failings of our health care and political systems in serving vulnerable communities. This oath is the first step in our enduring commitment to repairing the injustices against those historically ignored and abused in medicine: Black patients, Indigenous patients, Patients of Color and all marginalized populations who have received substandard care as a result of their identity and limited resources.

Acknowledging the privilege and responsibility that come with being a physician, I take this oath as a call to action to fulfill my duty to patients, to the medical profession and to society.

Thereby, I pledge as a physician and lifelong student of medicine:

I will support and collaborate with my colleagues across disciplines and professions, while respecting the patient’s vital role on the health care team.

I will honor my physical, mental and emotional health so as to not lessen the quality of care I provide.

I will carry on the legacy of my predecessors by mentoring the next generation of diverse physicians.

I will recognize the pivotal role of ethical research in the advancement of medicine and commit myself to endless scholarship with the ultimate goal of improving patient care.

I will care for my patients’ holistic well-being, not solely their pathology. With empathy, compassion and humility, I will prioritize understanding each patient’s narrative, background and experiences while protecting privacy and autonomy.

I will champion diversity in both medicine and society, and promote an inclusive environment by respecting the perspectives of others and relentlessly seeking to identify and eliminate my personal biases.

I will be an ally to those of low socioeconomic status, the BIPOC community, the LGBTQIA+ community, womxn/women, differently-abled individuals and other underserved groups in order to dismantle the systemic racism and prejudice that medical professionals and society have perpetuated.

I will educate myself on social determinants of health in order to use my voice as a physician to advocate for a more equitable health care system from the local to the global level.

I will restore trust between the health care community and the population in which I serve by holding myself and others accountable, and by combating misinformation in order to improve health literacy.

In making this oath, I embrace the ever-changing responsibilities of being a physician and pledge to uphold the integrity of the profession in the clinic and beyond.

Speakers

Anantha Shekhar, MD, PhD

Senior Vice Chancellor for the Health Sciences and
John and Gertrude Petersen Dean of the School of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh

Salutation; Presenting MD Diplomas

Jeanne Marrazzo, MD, MPH
Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the U.S. National Institutes of Health

Keynote Speaker

Joe Suyama, MD
Professor and Vice Chair for Career Development, Department of Emergency Medicine and Advisory Dean, School of Medicine

Declaration of Geneva

JoAnne L. Flynn, PhD
Distinguished Professor and Chair, Department of Microbiology and
Molecular Genetics and Center for Vaccine Research Assistant Dean and
Codirector, Medical Scientist Training Program