Putting the Humanity Back into Medicine

Dr. Jock Murray, a neurologist in Halifax, Nova Scotia, feels that an imbalance has been created in medical education. According to Murray, in concentrating on courses about science, schools forgot that "medicine is not a science. It is a caring profession that uses science." Further, Murray believes that this imbalance has led to public concerns – not about physicians' knowledge of science – about poor communication and a perception that doctors lack caring and an understanding of patients as people.

With this in mind, in 1992, Murray launched the Humanities-in-Medicine Program (the first of its kind in Canada) at Halifax's Dalhousie University. Murray believes that the understanding of people, their condition, and their suffering, is better learned through literature, poetry, and art than it is through medical textbooks.

Every year, about 20% of medical students opt for a course in medical humanities. The current roster of 28 electives ranges from the popular Music-in-Medicine chorale and ensembles – which have 200 participants, of which 80% are students – to courses in narrative ethics, military medicine, and opium addiction in the famous. Also popular are the medical students' annual art exhibit and the weekly lunchtime lectures, with topics ranging from art illustration in medicine to Mi'kmaq midwifery.

In addition to striving to legitimize the humanistic aspects of medicine, says Murray, the program seeks to influence the attitudes of students and to enhance their understanding of the human condition.

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