John P. McGovern Academy
of Oslerian Medicine

Sir William Osler, the founder of modern medicine, believed not only in the importance of a sound scientific understanding of the human body, but also in the importance of developing a strong professional relationship with each patient. Just as Osler brought residents and medical students to the bedside to learn medicine, The Osler Project brought UTMB students to the bedside to exercise their minds and spirits in humanistic efforts and united them in the common interest of Osler's compassion. As Osler said in an address to the students of the Albany Medical College in 1899, "Be careful when you get into practice to cultivate equally well your hearts and your heads."

The idea of The Osler Project was developed in the fall of 2005 during a brainstorming session for possible volunteer activities by Osler Student Scholars and the pilot POM-1 Osler Student Society group. Their aim was to give pediatric patients an activity to make their stay in the hospital more positive and to get UTMB students involved with patients outside f academic interactions. With the help of Drs. Mark Holden and Judith Aronson, Scholars in the John P. McGovern Academy of Oslerian Medicine, along iwth artist Julie Weldon and the Pediatric Child Life Program, The Osler Project decided to create a beach-scene mosaic from ceramic tiles painted by pediatric patients and their families. Individual kits with all the necessary supplies to paint a tile were distributed to patients, and students assisted and/or painted with the children in their free time.

The project was completed in the summer of 2008, just weeks prior to hurrican Ike, and is proudly on display in the first floor entrance of Children's Hospital.