Short answer: because creative skills are essential to successful medical practice; they are easily and authentically learned in art.
See below for some key studies that inform my opinion that quality clinician attention may be healthcare’s greatest resource, and art has a role in the development of quality attention.
Long answer: Watch a video of a panel on the topic of complex issues of clinical skill and the educational approaches to address them–educational approaches that are not distinct from arts-educational approaches–reviewing studies from Yale School of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, and University of Texas Health Science Center Austin. The plenary, Healthy Partners: Why the Arts Matter to Medicine, took place earlier this month at Art Education Partnership‘s National Forum, Arts Learning Without Borders in Chattanooga, TN. I was honored to lead it in collaboration with Irwin Braverman, MD, and Diana Beckmann-Mendez PhD, FNP.
Art makes better thinkers. Yes, we said that. Check it out!
Note: panel begins at 11:30
Thanks to AEP for their curiosity on this topic and for organizing a great conference focused on the many studies suggesting the critical role of art in a comprehensive education.
And thanks to four art museum educators who gave generously of their time in the planning of this plenary: Kate Carey at the McNay Art Museum, Linda Friedlaender at the Yale Center for British Art, Adera Causey at the Hunter Museum of Art, and Ray Williams at the Blanton Museum of Art.
Also, some press from Chattanooga.
Key studies:
Klugman, C, Peel, J, Beckmann-Mendez, D. Art Rounds: Teaching Interprofessional Students Visual Thinking Strategies at One School. Academic Medicine 2011; 86(10): 1266-1271
Naghshineh S, Hafler JP, Miller AR, Blanco MA, Lipsitz SR, Dubroff RP, Khoshbin S, Katz JT. Formal art observation training improves medical students’ visual diagnostic skills. Journal of General Internal Medicine 2008; 23(7): 991-7.
Dolev JC, Friedlaender LK, Braverman IM. Use of fine art to enhance visual diagnostic skills. Journal of the American Medical Association 2001; 286(9): 1020-1.
Bardes CL, Gillers D, Herman AE. Learning to look: developing clinical observational skills at an art museum. Medical Education 2001; 35(12):1157-61.
Shapiro J, Rucker L, Beck J. Training the clinical eye and mind: using the arts to develop medical students’ observational and pattern recognition skills. Medical Education 2006; 40(3):263-8.
Schaff, Pamela B, Suzanne Isken, and Robert M Tager. 2011. “From Contemporary Art to Core Clinical Skills: Observation, Interpretation, and Meaning-Making in a Complex Environment.” Academic Medicine 86 (10) (October): 1272–1276. doi:10.1097/ACM.
Gaufberg, EG and Williams, MR. Reflection in a Museum Setting: The Personal Responses Tour. Journal of Graduate Medical Education: Dec 2011; 3(4): 546-549
Boisaubin EV, Winkler MG. Seeing patients and life contexts: the visual arts in medical education. American Journal of the Medical Sciences 2000; 319(5):292-6.
Perry, M, N Maffulli, and S Willson. 2011. “The Effectiveness of Arts‐Based Interventions in Medical Education: a Literature Review.” Medical Education.
Check out ArtsEd Search for a vast body of research on arts impact on children and adults in a broad range of settings.
3 Responses to “Why do the arts matter to medicine?”
The Creative Arts in Humane Medicine, a new text for medical educators, has been developed in response to the growing need for resources in the arts and medicine. The book explores the field internationally and features illustrative examples of the arts in action in medical education and practice.
When I first saw this title Why do the arts matter to medicine? | Arts Practica on google I just whent and bookmark it. Hey. Very cool blog!! Guy .. Beautiful .. Amazing .. I will bookmark your website and take the feeds additionally…I am glad to locate a lot of useful info right here within the post. Thank you for sharing…
This exercise is part of a required “art intervention” workshop at Yale School of Medicine to help medical students hone their observation skills—a talent that many believe is waning as high-tech diagnostic tests take precedence over gathering firsthand evidence from patients. So far, more than 20 U.S. medical schools, including Weill Cornell Medical College and Harvard Medical School, are offering art classes similar to Yale’s.