WVSOM Commencement Ceremony speaker emphasizes importance of battling misinformation

It was a day where engagement was high. On May 1, members of the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine’s (WVSOM) Class of 2026 crossed the graduation stage following a keynote address by a renowned social media medical influencer, closing one of the most demanding chapters of their lives and opening another defined by service to patients.

For 183 new physicians, the Commencement Ceremony followed years spent in anatomy labs, lectures and hospitals, where they trained to diagnose illness and improve patients’ health. In the weeks and months ahead, graduates will scatter to residency programs across the state and nation.

Under a tent on WVSOM’s parade field, Adam Goodcoff, D.O., a 2020 alumnus and emergency medicine physician who has garnered millions of followers for delivering evidence-based medical education on social media platforms, told the class he never intended to become an influencer.

“It was a real risk. It was not the norm, and it was a decision I thought long about,” he said. “As a GTA [graduate teaching assistant], I would spend my days running anatomy lab sessions and trying to make sense of the spaghetti of nerves in the brachial plexus, but at night I started creating content online. Slowly it started to grow. What started as 200 in a lecture hall turned into 200 online viewers, then 2,000 viewers and later 2 million.”

Today, Goodcoff is chief medical officer of HealthCentral, a health care experience company focused on creating impactful content for patients and providers. In addition to clinical experience in the Johns Hopkins Health System, he has served as a visiting lecturer at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and is a medical advisor to OpenEvidence. He also participated in the White House Healthcare Leaders in Social Media Roundtable.

He said he continued his work in social media when he realized his voice could be important in fighting misinformation. Last year, Goodcoff said, a multinational consultancy firm conducted a survey on health and social media, finding that 33% of members of Gen Z turn to TikTok instead of physicians for health information, and that 58% of young people have made at least one poor health decision due to misrepresentations they found online.

“It started to feel like an obligation to be online, to fight the ridiculous [misinformation] that people were sharing loudly across social media,” he said. “Most of all, as I started to practice in residency, it became clear just how much bad information patients have access to.”

Addressing the pressures new physicians can expect to encounter, he recalled the stress he felt during his first two years as an attending physician while covering the night shift in a 28-bed emergency room.

“I still remember a 3 a.m. call from the hospital CEO and the head of legal about a patient transfer. It was a question that lasted 25 minutes while I had 17 other patients in the department, one of whom was the critically ill patient requiring transfer. I share this not to scare you, but to say that I see you. You are being asked to rise to the occasion in many cases with limited resources, and less support than you deserve,” he said.

Goodcoff said he found strength in the education he’d received in medical school, and assured graduates that they, too, are more prepared for challenges than they might realize.

“There is one thing I am certain of: the incredible hands-on training I received here at WVSOM,” he said. “It gave me the foundation and toughness to dig deep in residency, build my skills and provide great care on hard nights like that, to fight through inefficient systems to show up for the patients — the ones who make all the work worth it.”

James W. Nemitz, Ph.D., WVSOM’s president, in an opening address, encouraged graduates to practice compassion toward others and themselves, and to stay connected with their medical school alma mater.

“Be kind to every living creature on this planet. Life is short, and we are all interconnected. As you embark upon a new chapter in your life, live your life as fully as you can and be the best that you can be every day. Know that you can always call WVSOM your home, and you are always welcome here,” he said.

Danny Chen, president of WVSOM’s D.O. Class of 2026, urged his classmates to believe in themselves even during the most difficult occasions.

“We worked so hard and accomplished something so difficult to be here today,” Chen said. “When tough times arise, I want you all to take a deep breath and look around you and appreciate what you have. Especially today, at this time and in this moment where you are surrounded by loved ones, your classmates and faculty who have supported you throughout this honorable journey.”

As the ceremony ended, Deborah Schmidt, D.O., a professor in WVSOM’s Department of Osteopathic Principles and Practice, led graduates in reciting the Osteopathic Oath, in which new physicians promise to faithfully perform their professional duties, keeping in mind the body’s inherent capacity for recovery — one of the four tenets of osteopathic medicine.

On May 8, the school will host a Commencement Ceremony for its Master of Science in Biomedical Sciences degree program. The event will begin at 2 p.m. in the Conference Center in the WVSOM Student Center on the school’s Lewisburg campus.