At LAU’s 2022 hooding ceremony, Georges Chedid was honored with the Professionalism Award—an early sign of the kind of doctor he was becoming. Colleagues and mentors had already seen in him a steady, respectful presence, someone who showed up fully for patients and peers alike.

After earning his MD from the Gilbert and Rose-Marie Chagoury School of Medicine, Chedid pursued a hematology-oncology research fellowship at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center while serving as a Research Fellow in Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

In June 2024, he began his internal medicine residency at Mount Auburn Hospital, a Harvard Medical School–affiliated institution, where his patient-centered care and leadership earned him two honors: the 2025 Christos E. Carvounis, M.D. Memorial Excellence with Compassion Award and the Chief Resident in Medicine Award for exemplary teamwork.

In this interview, Dr. Chedid reflects on the principles that shaped his training, what these awards mean to him, and how his time at LAU prepared him for the challenges of residency and beyond.

After graduating from the LAU, you joined Mount Auburn Hospital, a highly competitive, prestigious training ground. What has this experience meant to you? How did your time at LAU prepare you for such a step, and what inspired your decision to pursue internal medicine with a focus on oncology?

The experience has been humbling, to be honest. At Mount Auburn, I get to train with outstanding colleagues from across the US and the world. Every day, I am simply amazed by the talent and experience that I see in my classmates here. Our faculty love to teach, and they are some of the finest in the area, which says a lot in a city with a history as rich as Boston’s in medicine. One really gets the sense that colleagues in training and attending physicians alike deliberately choose to come to this rather collegial environment.

As for my decision to pursue medicine/oncology, I was quite lucky that I was surrounded by doctors, superb role models, particularly my mother and uncle, from a young age. Medicine allows us to enact such profound change for the better in our patients’ lives…what a privilege! It is the ideal balance of science, which is constantly changing, and art, in that we are always working with other humans, our patients. 

My first introduction to hematology-oncology was, unfortunately, familial and somewhat tragic. But I was blessed with outstanding mentors at LAU, whose enthusiasm for the field was contagious. I still try to abide by Dr. Adlette Inati’s three pillars of advice from Med 1: study hard, perform a thorough history and physical exam, and do good research! I learned so much by observing Dr. Hady Ghanem’s bedside manner, too. I then followed that interest through a research fellowship in hematology-oncology in the US. Other mentors, such as Dr. Selim Nasser and Dr. Anna Farra, really taught me to think.

My time at LAU, particularly the clinical years, taught me a few lessons that have served me well. I learned the value of self-reliance and trying to figure things out on my own. The medical school rotations out in the community, especially, taught me to think on my feet and act with confidence.

I learned the value of humility, of owning my mistakes. Medicine is so vast that there is simply no way of knowing everything. I’ve had to reply “I don’t know” to so many questions in the hospital, which is a fair answer provided we promptly crack open the books and study some more!

You also received the 2025 Chief Resident in Medicine Award for exemplary teamwork at Mount Auburn Hospital. What do you think were the key qualities or defining moments that led to this recognition, and how has the experience shaped your approach to leadership and teamwork in clinical practice?

Truthfully, I think this represents a mindset that I brought with me to work every day, more than a particular moment or event. It was apparent to me, from the get-go, that my role was merely one part of a huge team, and not just doctors. I learned a lot by listening to experienced nurses, physical therapists, respiratory therapists, and others who share a common goal: the patients’ wellbeing. I realized very early in the year that I should listen carefully to my co-interns and residents and back them up. Respect and professionalism are paramount, as are validating and addressing colleagues’ concerns and ideas. A little humor helps, too!

We often hear of what it means to “lead from behind,” i.e., to listen first, and nowhere is this more valid than in the high-stakes environment of a hospital.

In my mind, every interaction with a patient or a colleague was a learning opportunity.

As a medical student, you’re constantly exposed to illness and suffering—experiences that can, over time, lead to emotional detachment. Yet you’ve also been recognized this year with the 2025 Christos E. Carvounis, M.D. Memorial Excellence with Compassion Award. How do you maintain this humane approach in such a demanding environment? What does this award mean to you, and is compassion something you’re born with or something you’ve learned to cultivate?

As practitioners of medicine, I think that compassion means we must always place ourselves in the patient’s shoes. Are the patient’s concerns being addressed? What does it mean to receive news in the hospital, good or bad? Is the patient being kept informed about the treatment plan?

One could argue that some personalities show more compassion than others, but I firmly believe that compassion can be instilled, fostered, and encouraged. Looking back, I think that the Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) were a terrific exercise in this regard. I also think that the OSCEs selection that we did in Arabic was a wonderful idea.

One phenomenon I recall from my medical school days is that many patients in Lebanon addressed us as “doctor” (“hakim” حكيم), although we were still students! This instilled a certain sense of responsibility in me that served me well through my first year of residency. Every time I walked into a patient’s room, knowing full well that senior residents and attending physicians were on hand if I needed help, I strove to think and act as if I were the first and last line of defense, truly my patient’s doctor and principal advocate.

How do you see your role evolving in oncology, and are there specific goals or contributions you hope to make in patient care, research, or medical education?

Oncology is in a constant state of flux, with new treatments, diagnostic modalities, and up-to-the-minute changes in guidelines. I think hematologists-oncologists, uniquely, can act as an incredibly immediate force for good in their patients’ lives. They also play a major role in teaching the next generation of healthcare professionals, and so many of them contribute to the ever-growing body of medical knowledge.

I have been blessed with superb mentors in hematology-oncology here in the US, shining examples of how to educate, treat, and investigate, all at once. So, that, in a nutshell, is the model I aim to emulate as I progress through training: healer-teacher-researcher. 

This interview has been edited and condensed for the sake of clarity.