School Notes: School of Medicine
November/December 2025

Gastroenterologist chairs internal medicine

On September 1, Wolfram Goessling assumed the role of chair of the Department of Internal Medicine at Yale School of Medicine, chief of internal medicine at Yale New Haven Hospital, and physician-in-chief for medicine across the Yale New Haven Health System. “We all have different experiences, backgrounds, and interests,” Goessling says. “Making sure faculty, staff, and trainees can find a place in the department to be who they are and who they want to become is an important goal of mine.”

Before joining Yale, Goessling was chief of gastroenterology and the Jules L. Dienstag MD and Betty and Newell Hale Endowed Chair in Gastroenterology at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. He also served as the Robert H. Ebert Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and the HMS director of the Harvard-Massachusetts Institute of Technology Division of Health Sciences and Technology.

New MD students don their white coats

The White Coat Ceremony for the 104 members of the Yale School of Medicine (YSM) MD Class of 2029, which marked the start of their medical school journey, included welcoming, reflective, and inspiring remarks from school leaders and an experienced doctor, as is the tradition. This year, it also included the poignant, thoughtful perspective of a rising second-year YSM MD student. 

Benjamin Doolittle, professor of medicine (general medicine), of pediatrics, and of divinity, and director of the Internal Medicine–Pediatrics Residency Program, shared the insights of this student—Comfort Abuwa—as part of his White Coat address. He explained that he teaches a philosophy seminar at YSM in the summer and asked his students what they would say if they were delivering the White Coat address. 

Abuwa’s focus on the importance of both knowledge and humanity in becoming and being a doctor was reflected throughout the August 8 ceremony. After sharing Abuwa’s remarks, Doolittle stated, “It is a special moment when the student becomes the teacher, and the teacher becomes the student.”