The Medical Humanities

How can studying philosophy, sociology, literature, and the arts make you a stronger health program applicant and a better health professional? 

This week we’re featuring a guest blog post about the intersection of the humanities and medicine written by Matthew Reznicek, PhD. Dr. Reznicek is an Associate Professor of Medical Humanities in the University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering History of Science, Technology, and Medicine program and an Associate Professor of Medical Humanities at the U of M Medical School.

Everything that Makes Us Human: The Possibilities of the Medical Humanities 

When we think about what makes a good doctor, of course, we want someone who is up-to-date on the latest medical research and experimental treatments, someone who understands kinesiology and physiology. We want someone who is good at medicine. But don’t we also want someone who is compassionate; someone who sits with us and helps us understand what is happening; someone who feels our anxieties and concerns and sees why this procedure is so important or so scary? We also want a provider who remembers that each patient is a whole person; we want a provider who is good at the human part of medicine. 

At first, it might seem odd–especially when we can be so focused on cramming in Organic Chemistry and Genetics and Pathophysiology–but a career in medicine and healthcare requires being good at so much more than the subjects we first think about when we think about medicine. 

This is why I am excited to introduce the field of the Medical Humanities here at the University of Minnesota. The Medical Humanities are a broad collection of diverse subjects that interweave the traditional medical focus on the body, disease, illness, and health with subjects that we don’t traditionally associate with medicine–subjects like literature, philosophy, history, anthropology, sociology, the fine and performing arts. As one scholar writes, the Medical Humanities are “an integrated, interdisciplinary, philosophical approach to recording and interpreting human experiences of illness, disability, and medical intervention.”¹ 

But what does this mean? I think blending the study of the body with a STEM approach and a Humanities approach can help us explore the idea of health, illness, and care differently; the Medical Humanities can help us think about questions and frameworks that inform how we practice medicine. They can make us think about how to practice medicine and how to achieve health differently. 

Take, for example, the problem of airborne illnesses–like Covid-19 or the flu. Of course, we know that doctors, nurses, researchers, and pharmacists have all helped to slow the spread of Covid-19 through the vaccine and various boosters. But Covid-19 has shown us a lot of holes in the intersection of medicine and the public; for example, how many of us know someone who has refused the vaccine or the booster? How do we help convince someone that this is not just safe, but is important for their health and the health of their community? It seems like the answer isn’t found in chemistry or anatomy, but in communication, sociology, political science, and the humanities.

Airborne illnesses also help us think about other aspects of the intersection of health and the public–some of which are best illustrated by turning to the humanities. Let’s look at Bessy Higgins, a young woman in Elizabeth Gaskell’s novel North and South. Bessy works at a linen mill and has developed a severe cough from years of inhaling the fibers at the mill, a condition we would recognize as byssinosis. The best forms of treatment are, first, prevention and, following that, increasing ventilation and possibly some bronchodilators. Now, here’s where literature really complicates the medical discussion. If Bessy were your patient, and the best possible solution is to reduce exposure to the fibers, but the mill-owners won’t pay for an exhaust fan and her family needs the money, how do you treat her? If the medical issue is caused by something beyond the control of a healthcare provider, what do we do? I don’t know. But I think asking these complex questions moves us toward the interdisciplinary space of the Medical Humanities and that can help us develop better answers and, more importantly, better care practices for our patients. 

In the past ten years, the Liaison Committee for Medical Education (LCME) have urged students applying to medical schools to develop “a broad undergraduate education that that includes the study of humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences”² not simply because students who majored in the Humanities do just as well in medical school and on National Board of Medical Examiners scores in residency as their peers who focused on STEM subjects; additionally, data show that students with a Medical Humanities background have increased medical student empathy, which is correlated with better clinical outcomes³. Moreover, physicians with Medical Humanities training have lower rates of burnout⁴. From pre-med years to medical school to the clinic, the study of Medical Humanities has been shown to produce better outcomes for patients and providers. 

So maybe, just maybe, studying the Medical Humanities can help make you a better healthcare professional. They certainly can help us remember that at the heart of the pursuit of medicine and nursing and dentistry and all the other health professions lies a commitment to the human being in all their complexity. 

References:

¹ Anna Skorzewska and Allan D. Peterkin, “Why are the Health Humanities Relevant (and Vital) in Postgraduate Medical Education?” Health Humanities in Postgraduate Medical Education: A Handbook to the Heart of Medicine. Eds. Allan D. Peterkin and Anna Skorzewska. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018. 1-20. Print. p. 4.

² Liaison Committee on Medical Education, “Functions and Structure of a Medical School: Standards for Accreditation of Medical Education Programs Leading to the MD Degree.” https://lcme.org/wp-content/uploads/filebase/standards/2021-22_Functions-and-Structure_2021-04-16.docx 

³ Jeremy Graham, DO, MA, et al. “Medical Humanities Coursework is Associated with Greater Measured Empathy in Medical Students.” The American Journal of Medicine. 129 (12): 2016. https://www.amjmed.com/article/S0002-9343(16)30833-6/fulltext 

⁴ Jeremy Graham, DO, MA, et al. “Medical Humanities Coursework is Associated with Greater Measured Empathy in Medical Students.” The American Journal of Medicine. 129 (12): 2016. https://www.amjmed.com/article/S0002-9343(16)30833-6/fulltext 

Thank you for writing for the PHSRC Pulse, Dr. Reznicek!