The White Coat Ceremony, as conducted at medical schools across America, is the result of a vision by Arnold P. Gold, M.D., a professor of surgery at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University.  Dr. Gold believes that medical students should be introduced to the white coat and what it represents as they enter medical school rather than as they exit, which had been the case historically.

The ceremony is conducted on the last day of Orientation to Medicine for matriculating medical students in the Memorial Hall Theatre on the James H. Quillen Veterans Affairs Medical Center campus.