Hatch named Class of 2014 role model

The 2014 Hippocratic Award winner, Robert Hatch, M.D., watches as fourth-year medical student Philip Gilbo adds a new nameplate to the boulder in Wilmot Gardens, which holds the names of previous award winners. Photo by Jesse S. Jones

The 2014 Hippocratic Award winner, Robert Hatch, M.D., watches as fourth-year medical student Philip Gilbo adds a new nameplate to the boulder in Wilmot Gardens, which holds the names of previous award winners. Photo by Jesse S. Jones

A crowd of about 50 fourth-year medical students cheered as Robert Hatch, M.D., strode to the podium to collect his third and final Hippocratic Award in Wilmot Gardens May 6.

“I respect your class so much,” Hatch told the gathered students. “UF students have always been good technically, but their humanism and interpersonal skills go up a bit each year. You have raised the bar even higher.”

Hatch is a community health and family medicine professor, as well as the director of the H. James Free, M.D., Center for Primary Care Education and Innovation. He also serves as the clerkship director for the family medicine and geriatrics clerkship.

The Hippocratic Award ceremony marked the third time Hatch received the award, as he was awarded in 2006 and 2010. Because of this, the Society of Teaching Scholars awarded Hatch the Hippocratic Scholars Award, which retires Hatch from future consideration.

“It’s a wonderful honor and so well deserved,” said Patrick Duff, M.D., associate dean for student affairs.

Philip Gilbo, a fourth-year medical student and president of the Class of 2014, said Hatch “connected with us beyond the classroom and treated us as future colleagues.” Gilbo and Hatch attached a new nameplate with Hatch’s name to the boulder in Wilmot Gardens recognizing all faculty members who have received the Hippocratic Award.

Michael Good, M.D., dean of the UF College of Medicine, reminisced about his early role models, including his parents and mentors during medical school.

“You selected a role model who is meaningful to all of you,” Good said. “(Dr. Hatch) is not only an outstanding teacher, superb physician and mentor, but someone the students wish to most emulate as they move forward in their careers.”