Silhouetted students talk in the Tauman Health Sciences Library

Medical Humanities

Deeper Understanding

  • If literature and the arts have been important aspects of your life and you want to integrate them into what you are learning in medical school,
  • If literature and the arts have not been important in your life but you wish they were,
  • If you are eager to learn how the lessons of history inform medicine today,
  • If you want to explore the relationship between medicine, communication and media,
  • If you wonder how the medical humanities can enrich your life as a physician and enhance relationships with your patients,

... then this path is for you.

The Medical Humanities Path of Excellence actively engages students in the connections between medicine and the humanities through exploration, scholarship, interpretation, creative pursuits and critical reflection to enrich understanding of the human experience as it relates to health and illness, and to enhance clinical, educational and research strategies.

The medical humanities is a broad field, encompassing the interface between the science of the health professions and other disciplines, including history, literature, creative writing, performing arts, visual arts and journalism. Students with extensive backgrounds in the arts or humanities, as well as students without previous experience, will participate in a community that supports self-actualization leading to improved patient care.

Through this Path, students learn to:

  • Describe the diversity of the various disciplines of the medical humanities
  • Elaborate on the relationship of two of these areas to the practice of medicine
  • Recognize the power of the humanities to connect with patients individually and within a community of practice
  • Identify and explore stereotypes related to physicians, patients, illness, aging and other aspects of the physician-patient relationship

Highlights

Med students must join this Path in winter of M1 year. After joining this Path, the student journey will begin with a foundational overview of four disciplines (History of Medicine, Journalism, Narrative Medicine and Creative Writing) through seminars and group activities. Interests will be honed in small workgroups leading to a self-directed capstone project facilitated by an advisor and a second mentor with expertise in another discipline. Although much of the Capstone for Impact work will be pursued independently, students will meet intermittently as a group to give updates on progress and share their projects.

Capstone for Impact Projects Archive (link is external)
Learn more about M4 Sam's Path experience

The strength of this Path lies in our core faculty, a consortium of dedicated and experienced educators and nationally acclaimed experts across the interface of medical science and the humanities. Students will find tailored support, guidance and mentoring for scholarly and creative projects yet to be imagined, with the aims of deepening self-awareness in the physician role and enhancing patient care.

Mary Blazek, MD, MEHP, Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Medical Humanities Path of Excellence