Yale Bulletin and Calendar

April 18, 2008|Volume 36, Number 26

Symposium will explore relationship
of art, humanities and medicine

In a letter to the editor that appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2006, Yale gastroenterologist Dr. Howard Spiro wrote: “[T]he humanities should not be a separate program, or a separate calling, but should be part of the character of all teachers of medical students and thereby of their students. A physician should be able to raise questions about an alcoholic man with a broken spirit as readily as about a retired woman with a broken hip.”

A symposium, “Where the Two Cultures Converge: Medicine and Humanities,” honoring Spiro for his role in promoting that ethos at Yale will be held on Saturday, April 26, at the Anlyan Center, 300 Cedar St. It is free and open to the public. To reserve a place, call (203) 785-6102 or send e-mail to deborah.finger@yale.edu.

Now professor emeritus of internal medicine, Spiro founded Yale’s Program for Humanities in Medicine 25 years ago. The program sponsors an annual lecture series, as well as an online journal that features fiction, non-fiction and poetry by medical and nursing students and health care providers. Over the years, the program has also hosted film series, exhibitions and other events exploring the links between the arts and humanities and the practice of medicine.

The symposium in Spiro’s honor will open at 8:30 a.m. with remarks by Dr. Thomas P. Duffy, current director of the Program for Humanities in Medicine.

Talks throughout the day will explore many themes relating to creativity and medicine. The morning talks will be: “The View from the Other Side: What Can Film Tell Us About Our Patients?” by Dr. Gretchen Berland, filmmaker and assistant professor of medicine at Yale; “A Personal Odyssey Through Medicine and Literature” by best-selling author Dr. Richard Selzer; “Paintings & Patients” by Dr. Irwin Braverman, professor of medicine at Yale; “Memories, Tales and Histories of Biomedicine” by Bruno Strasser, assistant professor in history of science and medicine at Yale; and “A Medical Student’s Perspective on the Humanities in Medicine” by Justin Chen, now in his third year at Yale medical school.

The afternoon program will include the following talks: “Why an Art Collection in a Medical School?” by Susan Wheeler, curator of prints and drawings at Yale’s Cushing/Whitney Medical Library; “Poetry, Empathy and Reflective Practice” by Dr. Jack Coulehan, poet, writer, professor emeritus at Stony Brook University, and senior fellow at the Center for Medical Humanities and Bioethics; “The Art of Translating the Art of Medicine” by Dr. Richard M. Ratzan, emergency physician at Hartford Hospital; and “Reflections on Portraits of an Illness” by Duffy.

A book titled “Medical Humanism: Aphorisms from the Bedside Teachings & Writings of Howard M. Spiro, M.D.” will also be published in conjunction with the symposium.

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