On November 4, 2018, President M. Roy Wilson delivered an address at the annual meeting of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) in Austin, Texas. President Wilson had just served as the AAMC’s board chair, and this marked his outgoing address.

President Wilson’s speech was titled “The Most Important Lesson I Learned in Medical School” and used as its main theme the maxim, “Be good to medicine, and medicine will be good to you.” It was a moving speech, as President Wilson recalled his journey to becoming a physician and the challenges and pitfalls he faced along the way.

When the magazine staff at the Harvard Medical School (President Wilson’s alma mater) read the speech, they were so moved by it that they asked if they could reproduce an edited version of the speech in their magazine, Harvard Medicine.

Read the article in its entirety.