Integrating Medical Humanities into Medical Education: Rethinking the Role and Potential of the Humanities in Medical Education

Dear Colleagues,

Medical humanities is a field of enquiry in which humanities and social sciences perspectives are brought to bear upon an exploration of the human side of medicine, questions that are often ignored by the biomedical sciences (CITE). In its broadest sense, this field includes historical, cultural, social, ethical, and political aspects of health and illness, and the knowledge and organization of medical clinical practice. However, recent calls have been made for a more radical framing of medical humanities, one in which ‘it is not enough to simply increase our insight into the cultural dimensions of health and well-being. We must, more radically, question the conventional distinction between the ‘objectivity of science’ and the ‘subjectivity of culture’. This obligation creates an urgent call for the medical humanities but also for a fundamental rethinking of their grounding assumptions’.

For this Special Issue, we invite contributions to this discussion that link this call to medical education. What contributions can medical humanities make to medical education that go beyond acting as a ‘soft supplement’ to biomedicine? What role can medical humanities play in medical education and in what ways can it go beyond offering supplementary critiques of biomedicine to expanding upon and transforming more traditional biomedical educations?

Submissions may explore these themes broadly or address them through focused studies on topics including, but not limited to:

• critical analysis and historical analysis of the role of medical humanities in medical education;
• case studies from medical education wherein medical humanities have been implemented and transformed medical education;
• comparative studies on the implementation of medical humanities in medical education;
• the epistemological underpinnings of medical humanities in conjunction with medical education—how can medical humanities contribute to medical knowledge, pedagogy, and learning outcomes?
• the intersections between medical humanities, sustainability thinking, and medical education—to what degree can or should the medical humanities contribute to fostering sustainability thinking in the education of medical professionals?

Reference： Kristeva, J., Moro, M. R., Ødemark, J., & Engebretsen, E. (2018). Cultural crossings of care: An appeal to the medical humanities. Medical Humanities, 44(1), 55-58.

Prof. Dr. Eivind Engebretsen
Dr. Tony Sandset
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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• medical humanities
• pedagogy
• sustainability
• curricula
• medical education
• expertise
• culture
• biomedicine