Perspective from Omer Ashruf: Meet the Virtuous Healer Honor Society

The Virtuous Healers Honor Society will welcome new members in a ceremony on March 13. As the program approaches, current members share their perspectives with The Pulse. Meet Omer Ashruf (M4).

What is the Virtuous Healer Honor Society?

The VHHS Chapter at NEOMED is an honor society that recognizes students and faculty who exemplify humanistic qualities in medicine and practices of a virtuous healer – specifically, those who inculcate the virtues of altruism, compassion, curiosity, generosity, humility, justice and moral imagination.

How did you hear about VHHS?

At the close of my Family Medicine clerkship at Cleveland Clinic Akron General, my clerkship director and past Leonard Tow Humanism Award recipient, Dr. Deborah Plate, introduced me to the VHHS at NEOMED. She carefully outlined what the society represented and the honor and responsibility that came with being an inductee. I always admired how she embodied the aforementioned virtues and seamlessly integrated them into patient care. I would be remiss not to credit her for my induction and the opportunity to be a part of the great work that is done here.

What is your favorite part about being a VHHS member?

Working alongside faculty leadership (NEOMED heavyweights Drs. Austin Fredrickson and Jeffrey Mellott) as well as my VHHS colleagues has been nothing short of an incredible experience. The most anticipated opportunity is the annual service event our society hosts. In prior years, VHHS members have organized National Marrow Donor Program drives (formerly Be The Match) to find donors for life-saving bone marrow transplants. This year, we intend to host the “Teddy Care Clinic” again for kids and their stuffed animals (join us on March 15!). It has been rewarding working and planning this event with such proactive colleagues.

How does being a VHHS member better help you as a student?

The VHHS provides an outlet for like-minded students who value service and altruism, and extend these principles to the greater community. It emphasizes responsibility, moral reasoning, and the therapeutic alliance integral to patient care. By engaging in service projects and advocacy, members translate virtues into tangible action, reinforcing that medicine is as much about the people it serves as the science behind it.

How can you join VHHS?

The process takes a two-fold approach: first, NEOMED students are nominated by peers/faculty. Second, the selected nominees are asked to complete a holistic application. We encourage you to nominate students who strongly represent these values!