Although the AAMC requires annual reporting of medical humanities teaching, most literature is based on single-school case reports and studies using information reported on schools’ websites. This study sought to discover what medical humanities is offered in North American allopathic and osteopathic undergraduate medical schools. An 18-question, semi-structured survey was distributed to all 146 member schools of the American Association of Medical Colleges and the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine. The survey sought information on required and elective humanities (...) content, hours of humanities instruction, types of disciplines, participation rates, and humanities administrative structure. The survey was completed by 134 schools. 70.8% of schools offered required and 80.6% offered electives in humanities. Global health and writing were the most common disciplines. Schools required 43.9 mean and 30 median hours in humanities. In the first two years, most humanities are integrated into other course work; most electives are offered as stand-alone classes. 50.0% of schools report only 0-25% of students participating in humanities electives. Presence of a certificate, concentration or arts journal increased likelihood of humanities content but decreased mean hours. Schools with a medical humanities MA had a higher number of required humanities hours. Medical humanities content in undergraduate curriculum is lower than is indicated in the AAMC annual report. Schools with a formal structure have a greater humanities presence in the curriculum and are taken by more students. (shrink)

In the last decade, the humanities have been shrinking in number of students, percent of faculty, and in number of degrees awarded. Humanities students also earn lower salaries than their STEM-prepared peers. At the same time, the health humanities have been in ascendance over the last fifteen years. The number of majors, minors and certificates has increased 266% in that time frame, attracting large numbers of students and preparing future patients, lay caregivers, and health care providers to interact with a (...) complicated and dehumanized medical system. In 1982, British philosopher and educator Stephen Toulmin declared that medicine saved philosophy from irrelevance and possibly extinction. I propose that the health humanities can serve a similar function to stave off the decline of the broader humanities. The health humanities can model an applied approach for the broader humanities to attract student interest; develop students’ capacity for critical reading, writing and reflection about health and medicine in society, practice, and their own lives and inoculate all students against the influence of medicine, whether through preparing pre-health students to navigate the hidden medical curriculum or preparing future patients to navigate the health care system. (shrink)