Sylvia Wright hails from a family that has a long tradition of white coats.
The Atlanta-based dermatologist and partner at Peachtree Dermatology Associates is a fourth-generation physician. For her, the white coat represents "the honor, the service and the commitment of practicing medicine."
But Wright could be the last in her family to wear this signature garment for doctors. This semi-official uniform, which goes back a century, has come under attack in the United States and in some European countries.
Those who have declared war on the white coat come mainly from the infection control community. They argue that the coats, with their long, loose-fitting sleeves, are prone to be germ magnets.
"We know conclusively that the clothing worn by health care workers can be contaminated with harmful pathogens," says Dr. Michael Edmond, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Iowa Hospital in Iowa City. "We have enough evidence to say it's the right thing to get rid of the white coats."
Several studies, including research by the World Health Organization, as well as by infectious disease experts in the U.S., Britain and Israel, show that pathogens are easily transferred from surfaces to fabric and from fabric to skin.
Studies have also confirmed that many of the microorganisms detected on white coats are antibiotic resistant. They included Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), which is responsible for the most dangerous kind of hospital-acquired infections.
Another disturbing finding came in a 2014 survey, in which 57 percent of U.S. physicians admitted washing their coats only once a month, or even less frequently.
Historically, the white coat has had both a clinical and a cultural meaning. Until the late 19th century, surgeons wore black coats in the operating theater. A group of German doctors first traded the black coats for pristine lab whites.
After that, the white coat not only became a symbol of hygiene and purity but also established physicians as scientists and helped differentiate the barber from the surgeon, the quack from the doctor.
In the U.S., many medical schools hold solemn white coat ceremonies, where aspiring doctors each receive their first coat as a symbolic act and rite of passage. It's no surprise that the love for the white coat runs deep - and any attempt to get rid of it is met with tough resistance.
The American Medical Association in 2009 rejected a recommendation by some members to ban white coats, saying the issue needed further study. Many proponents of the white coat insist research hasn't sufficiently proved the transmission of bacteria and viruses from coat to patient.
In 2007, the British National Health Service introduced a new dress code for health care workers, which marked the beginning of the end of the white coat in the United Kingdom. The policy was dubbed "bare below the elbows" - meaning that the lower arms are to remain free of any fabric, jewelry or watches. The same regulation is in place in the Netherlands.
For Edmond, the bare-below-the-elbows policy "makes perfect sense." Thorough hand washing - the most effective tactic against hospital-acquired infections - is much easier when the arms are not covered, he said.
That's why, together with some colleagues around the U.S., he launched a campaign against white coats.
He started wearing scrubs every day at the Virginia Commonwealth Hospital in Richmond, where he was employed at the time. He encouraged fellow physicians to do the same. Today, about 70 percent of the hospital's health care workers are bare below the elbows, and most doctors have shed their white coats.
The Georgia Hospital Association said it has not taken a position on the white coat. The Atlanta-based CDC, which has a strong influence on medical communities around the world, said in a written statement that "an important place for future research will be to establish the effect of a bare-below-the-elbows policy" on the transmission of pathogens and the incidence of hospital-acquired infections.
