Art, Health, and Medical Education

Pamela Schaff, MD, PhD and patient advocate, Ted Meyer, discuss why they bring art and humanities into medical education.

The HEAL (Humanities, Ethics, Art, and Law) Program at Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, prepares students to care for patients as complete human beings, not as injuries or illnesses. The longitudinal course builds skills essential to the effective and compassionate care of patients and communities—skills of perspective taking, critical reflection, narrative humility, and ethical decision-making. The curricular content provides students with the tools they need to develop their professional identities as they accept the complexities of a life committed to caring for the health of individuals and communities. As an interdisciplinary program, the HEAL program is enhanced by collaboration with HEAL’s MS in Narrative Medicine Program, scholars in the humanities and social sciences from USC’s University Park Campus, Ted Meyer, artist-in-residence, and Zora Mihailovich, musician-in-residence.

Following this session, attendees will be able to:

• Describe the benefits of integrating arts and humanities in interdisciplinary medical education and healthcare
• Identify strategies that could be used to embed art, narrative and interprofessional communication into health professions curriculum