The 2025 graduating class of The University of the West Indies (UWI), Cave Hill Campus, Faculty of Medical Sciences has achieved the best academic results in five years, with 36 out of 37 students passing their final clinical exams.
The results included 14 honours and four distinctions.
Dean of the Faculty, Dr Damian Cohall, described the performance as one of the most successful in recent memory, during the Hippocratic Oath Taking Ceremony at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Auditorium on Thursday.
“Out of the 38 candidates who completed the exams, 36 passed, one had a medical exemption,” he said.
“We had a very high number of honours and four distinctions. It gives me great pleasure to welcome you into the medical profession.”
The Hippocratic Oath marked the final step in a five-year medical journey— three years of pre-clinical study and two years of clinical rotations in hospitals and health centres locally.
The last exam, the unified Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) clinical assessment, was held on May 30.
Though officials heartily congratulated the outstanding performances of the graduates, the event went beyond a celebration of grades.
The ‘newly-minted physicians-in-waiting’ were reminded that becoming a doctor is not only about what they know, but how they treat the people who come to them for care.
Dr Cohall told them they were entering a profession that was rapidly changing, shaped by artificial intelligence, biotechnology and robotics. However, he stressed that none of those tools could replace the human touch.
“ChatGPT is not just going to be an app– it will become your medical colleague,” he said. “But what will separate you from that technology is your humanity. Your judgement. Your compassion. That can’t be programmed.”
He also spoke about the ethical weight of the profession, urging the new doctors to keep patient care at the centre of their practice, even as the medical landscape shifts.
“As doctors, you’ll be expected to know the law and to do what is morally right,” he said. “That can be subjective, but the standards of society still apply.”
Director of Medical Services at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Anthony Harris, also addressed the graduates, stating that while it is easy to compare today’s doctors to those who came before, this generation faces a “different world”.
“You live in the most exciting time in human history,” he told them. “You have more information than ever before. But even with all of that, it still comes down to how you put it into practise–and how you care for people.”
Harris said despite advances in technology, medicine remains a personal profession.
“At the end of the day, it’s a human being in front of you who needs care. That’s what makes this profession noble,” he said. “You’ve been given a special privilege. Of all the graduates this region has produced, you are a specialised few. And you’re expected to carry this forward and improve lives.”
The oath is a centuries-old tradition, a pledge to put patients first, to practise ethically, and to never lose sight of the responsibility that comes with the title of doctor.
And while there were no white coats or dramatic rituals, the message to the Class of 2025 was simple: in an age of rapid change, what matters most is how you treat people and not just how well you perform. (SM)
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