For more than 30 years, faculty at the School of Medicine have striven to incorporate the humanities into medical education. Among their efforts are writing programs, literary salons, and a symphony orchestra. In these pages, we take a look at some of the programs that have integrated the arts and humanities with the practice of medicine.
Thirty years of the humanities at the School of Medicine
Yale Medicine, 2017 - Winter
Among the efforts in the humanities at Yale are writing programs, literary salons, and a symphony orchestra.
Honing observation skills in the gallery, 1998: In 1998, Irwin M. Braverman, M.D. ’55, HS ’56, professor emeritus of dermatology, began teaching first-year medical students to hone their observational skills by analyzing paintings in the Yale Center for British Art. Developing those skills prepares the students for such activities as the physical exam, where they rely on observations to make clinical decisions. Braverman recently led a tour of paintings with a dermatology theme in the Cushing/Whitney Medical Library.
Photo by John Curtis
Yale Internal Medicine Residency Writers’ Workshop, 2003: The Writers’ Workshop is an annual two-day program for Yale residents in internal medicine and other specialties to learn the craft of story and essay writing. Each January, the residents read their final work to the Yale community, and the department sponsors a Writing and Medicine Grand Rounds. Reflection on the residents’ own experiences or the patients’ stories creates deeper empathy and a greater connection between doctor and patient. At the program’s 10th anniversary celebration, writer and transplant surgeon Pauline Chen, M.D., HS ’98, discussed the importance of storytelling for physicians.
Photo by John Curtis
Yale Medical Symphony Orchestra, 2007: In 2007, Thomas P. Duffy, M.D., professor emeritus of medicine (hematology), suggested to Lynn Tanoue, M.D. ’82, HS ’85, FW ’89, professor of medicine, and a violinist, that they make use of the talented musicians within the medical community. An invitation to a sight reading of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 brought almost 200 musicians and vocalists. Since the Yale Medical Symphony Orchestra’s inaugural performance in 2008, it has offered annual winter and spring concerts, as well as occasional additional events including Halloween concerts and pop concerts.
Photo by Robert A. Lisak
Yale UCL Medical and Engineering Students’ Poetry Competition, 2011: The Yale-University College London Poetry Competition began in 2011 as a way for medical and engineering students to demonstrate their creativity. Medical student Lorenzo Sewanan received an award for his poetry from Dean Robert J. Alpern, M.D.
Photo by John Curtis
Literary salons for medical students, 2012: Literary salons bring together faculty and first- and second-year medical students to discuss books about medicine. Such books as The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and The Plague are chosen to correlate with courses the students are taking. At one salon, Gerald Friedland, M.D., and Erol Fikrig, M.D., FW ’91, led a discussion of The Plague.
Photo by John Curtis
The Art of Caring, 2013: Led by Alita Anderson, M.D. ’01, three medical students collected the stories of a bus driver, a kitchen worker, and a custodian at the medical school. These are stories about people who work to support life on campus, but often do so behind the scenes. A year later seven students read their works about a security guard, a cashier, a newspaper vendor, and others. Students honored these staff members by celebrating all they do to maintain the quality of life that students enjoy.
Photo by John Curtis
Student Voices, 2015: First-year medical students Keval Desai and Patrick Huang realized, during the orientation session for the Humanities in Medicine program, that every student comes to medical school with a unique story. They created a casual lunchtime lecture series in which students could tell those stories to their peers. It’s a chance for students to sharpen their storytelling skills and gain some insight into their classmates’ lives. In one of the first talks, Melissa Thomas, an Iraq veteran, described her experiences on a base outside Baghdad.
Photo by John Curtis
Learning to See, 2015: The Learning to See lecture series, organized by Cyra Levenson, Ed.M., former curator of education and academic outreach at the Yale Center for British Art, Yale medical student Siyu Xiao, and Anna Reisman, M.D., director of the Program for Humanities in Medicine, began in the fall of 2015 as a way to connect the skills of visual art with practices in medicine. Art, says Levenson, connects cultures and people across time and serves to reshape how we interpret the world around us. “It’s the first and fundamental human language,” Levenson says. “We are wired to understand our world through art.”
Photo by John Curtis