Enlightened doctors: how the humanities help medical training. From the editorial:

We have the style of healthcare we evidently want. It attends almost exclusively to the physical body, paying little attention to the experience of the sick person. Is that what we still want?

That question is especially pertinent during this pandemic. We’re medically quite limited, lacking cure, adequate testing, and effective immunization. We’re affected in significant non-medical ways, too.

Sick — and dying — patients are necessarily separated from loved ones. We suffer widespread anxiety and unfounded rumors. Our lives are utterly deranged, and we don’t know if or when they’ll be restored. But if, as they say, crisis’ flip side is opportunity, there’s much we can do in addition to physical medicine.

It depends on what we want. If all we want is to watch COVID-19 eventually head over the horizon, fine. But if we also want relief from suffering right now in the form of compassion, personal attention, counseling, and support, we can have that, too. Certainly many healthcare workers already act this way, but how can we steer the entire institution in that direction?

The Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City runs a program intended to give its graduates a head start in these softer skills. It admits scientific pre-meds, but also students who major in fields like English, anthropology and history. The assumption is that these students, having had more exposure than science majors to the human condition, will see their patients as more than medical problems.

For other posts on humanities in medicine, see here.