Schools with robust medical humanities opportunities?

[Constantius]

I'm adding in some last minute schools on AMCAS, and I'm wondering if the wise users of SDN could share with me any knowledge they have about schools with stronger than average medical humanities opportunities. I know it's not a terribly popular focus for most applicants, and scouring every single school website for this info is taking a toll on me since schools don't advertise such opportunities nearly as much as they tout classic premed attractors like public health, clinical research, etc. I've searched and Googled probably at least 40 schools individually by now, and I don't doubt that I've missed something at some point.

By stronger, I mean that they either have some sort of academic center or department dedicated to the medical humanities (often paired with bioethics) or medical humanities are available as a scholarly concentration/project/focus/etc. I'm not counting schools that ONLY have medical humanities available as electives or extracurricular activities, since those are a dime a dozen. I'm also not counting schools that focus only on bioethics with little/no mention of other medical humanities disciplines (e.g. narrative medicine, medical anthropology, etc.).

I would especially love to hear about any personal anecdotes or experiences from current/incoming medical students interested in the same field about how the school you're going to offers (or doesn't offer) relevant opportunities.

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[Sushirolls]

Please clarify why you are placing value on this, and what you hope to benefit from this, and how it will shape your future?

 

[Constantius]

Please clarify why you are placing value on this, and what you hope to benefit from this, and how it will shape your future?

This almost read just like a secondary prompt, so I'll admit I was a bit alarmed when I initially saw it, and I'm sorry if I come off as a bit defensive as a result. Assuming you're serious, I enjoy the subjective and humanistic side of medicine and have invested much of my undergraduate time in narrative medicine work, and I want to be able to continue in medical school. It's also not just a matter of wanting to apply humanistic principles to seeing patients, since I want to eventually pursue academic medicine and conduct research/teach in the area, so having academic opportunities beyond electives/extracurriculars is important to me. I was also mentored closely by a physician who taught narrative medicine at my undergrad's medical school, so I'd like to follow in his footsteps, knowing that it's possible to turn a niche interest into an actual career.

 

[Dave1980]

Medical humanities in med school...lol...not really...don't worry my friend if you get in you will be too consumed with memorizing the insertions of the flexor tendons to worry about poetry.

 

[WedgeDawg]

Columbia has a strong narrative med program that’s also integrated into the MD curriculum

 

[username456789]

I assumed this was a “which schools should I definitely avoid?” thread.

 

[GoSpursGo]

Moving to pre-med.

 

[Potatoes&Avocados]

Rochester!

 

[whorobbedthewoods]

Check out Sinai's medical humanities program. They have both a separate academy and a scholarly concentration. Courses offered explore art & art history, music, creative writing, history, philosophy...in other words, the humanities.

Humanities Courses | Icahn School of Medicine

The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai offers elective courses geared towards first- and second-year medical students and align with the mission and vision of the medical school.

icahn.mssm.edu

Medical Humanities Scholars Track | Icahn School of Medicine

The Academy for Medicine and the Humanities invites students at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai to propose ideas for projects in the medical arts and humanities that would be eligible for summer funding.

icahn.mssm.edu

 

[xkcd6330]

UT Houston (McGovern), NYU, Stanford

 

[xkcd6330]

Medical humanities in med school...lol...not really...don't worry my friend if you get in you will be too consumed with memorizing the insertions of the flexor tendons to worry about poetry.

Just curious, would you say the same to someone who expressed an interest in doing bench research in med school? Admittedly, medical humanities has only somewhat recently emerged as its own discipline, so maybe I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and you just aren't familiar, but there are plenty of med schools that take it seriously as both a teaching tool and as an academic pursuit.

 

[Constantius]

Medical humanities in med school...lol...not really...don't worry my friend if you get in you will be too consumed with memorizing the insertions of the flexor tendons to worry about poetry.

Yet somehow plenty of students find time to conduct STEM research as part of/in addition to the medical curriculum? How is this any different? I'd also wager that after spending hours memorizing the insertions of flexor tendons, a shift in focus would actually be appreciated to avoid the burnout that plagues medical students and professionals - like studying poetry, for one. There are reasons why the humanities are having an increasingly greater presence in medical school curricula nowadays, and that's one of them.

As much as I talk about the humanities, I was still a STEM major who did basic research and took majority STEM classes in college, so it's also not as if I'm wildly out-of-touch with how densely clinical the medical curriculum is. I fully don't expect that medical school is going to be rosy and touchy-feely and offer lots of room for me to explore this interest... so I might as well search for schools that have more infrastructure to support it in the first place.

 

[Constantius]

I assumed this was a “which schools should I definitely avoid?” thread.

Hilarious - thanks for your valuable contribution. I could also be another high stats, cookie-cutter, box-checking pre-med that adcoms can't tell apart from anyone else, but I think I'll stick with my niche interests. I'll also say that expressing them to various deans of admissions of T20 schools at my undergrad's pre-health fair made their eyes light up and really got a lot of them talking, so I'll take that as a good sign. I suppose I should "definitely avoid" all of those T20 schools then?

 

[chlorocruorin]

IU has a scholarly concentration in bioethics and medical humanities available

 

[Dave1980]

Just curious, would you say the same to someone who expressed an interest in doing bench research in med school? Admittedly, medical humanities has only somewhat recently emerged as its own discipline, so maybe I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and you just aren't familiar, but there are plenty of med schools that take it seriously as both a teaching tool and as an academic pursuit.

I graduated med school under 10 years ago and now work at a different academic center with med students. At my med school there was an attempt by the administration to inject humanities into the curriculum. It was a total failure and I don't see anyway of actually making it work in a meaningful way for a number of reasons.

But please I would love to be educated by a premed on what med schools are doing and what will and won't work.

 

[xkcd6330]

I graduated med school under 10 years ago and now work at a different academic center with med students. At my med school there was an attempt by the administration to inject humanities into the curriculum. It was a total failure and I don't see anyway of actually making it work in a meaningful way for a number of reasons.

But please I would love to be educated by a premed on what med schools are doing and what will and won't work.

Fair enough, I get why students who aren’t interested can get frustrated at what that they see as extra requirements and hoops to jump through. But why the hostility at someone who wants to pursue those opportunities? I know med school is busy, but students do make time for research, student organizations, etc, correct?

I am only a premed, but it was more the general attitude deriding the humanities in your comment that rubbed me the wrong way. I respect that you have more experience and all, but I don’t need to have been to med school to push back against that sense of superiority that’s so common in stem disciplines. There’s no reason why you can’t learn and enjoy all the science you need to know in med school while also wanting to explore other interests.

 

[Constantius]

I graduated med school under 10 years ago and now work at a different academic center with med students. At my med school there was an attempt by the administration to inject humanities into the curriculum. It was a total failure and I don't see anyway of actually making it work in a meaningful way for a number of reasons.

But please I would love to be educated by a premed on what med schools are doing and what will and won't work.

I suppose implementing it works better for some schools than for others. There's also so many factors that need to be considered though, like funding, finding faculty, the actual topics being taught, student interest, curricular structure, etc. that can obviously majorly impact the success or failure of such an attempt, and those are different at every school.

Yes, we're all just mere premeds here, and your point is valid, but your experience is anecdotal and your sample size is one. I'm not sure you can claim to know exactly what med schools are doing and what does or doesn't work either. "Failure" is also an ambiguous term. Was it a lack of significant measurable outcomes that made it "fail"? There's empirical studies being done across multiple institutions involving implementing humanistic principles and practical techniques into education for medical students and training for practicing physicians. As others have mentioned, there's also plenty of medical humanities activity at top schools like Columbia, Stanford, Mount Sinai, NYU, and multiple that weren't brought up here: Harvard, Northwestern, Duke, UCSF, etc. I don't believe they would be piloting and developing medical humanities programs if they didn't see some sort of potential in it and derived at least some success from it already.

To add in my own insignificant premed anecdote, I went to a T10 undergrad with a T20 medical school, and the growth I've seen in the medical humanities opportunities here in just two years has been incredible. There's a growing body of medical students and undergraduates alike interested in the field, as indicated by enrollment in related courses in the liberal arts college and medical school. From what I've observed, medical students are starting to lead the charge for even more projects at my institution. But of course, my sample size is also just one.