Detail of part of the mosaic "Anatomical Heart," collected ceramics, dishware, mortar, and cement, by mixed media artist and muralist Mary Lacy, at an exhibition at the Larner College of Medicine in February 2024 (Image courtesy of Soapbox Arts)

The world of medicine is increasingly recognizing the importance of explicit attention to the humanities. After all, if medicine is devoted to making sense of what it means to be sick, then it is the job of the physician to tease out the nuanced spaces between wellness and disease. The study of the humanities is distinctively suited to this challenging task. 

What do we mean when we refer to the humanities, especially with regard to the practice of medicine? Put simply, medical humanities focus on what it means, literally, to be human. To this end, physicians benefit from skilled attention to literature, poetry, philosophy, history, ethics, art, artistic performance, and even the social sciences.

As the famous physician Sir William Osler said to his students more than a hundred years ago: “To know the patient that has the disease is more important than to know the disease that the patient has.”

Read the full story in Fall 2024 Vermont Medicine magazine