The way out is the way in.
- Buddhist saying

Links And Resources

Links To Academic Sites Related To
Medical Humanities And Arts:

American Society for Bioethics and Humanities
http://www.asbh.org

Literature, Arts, and Medicine Resources
http://mchip00.med.nyu.edu/lit-med

Medical Humanities Directory and Points of Contact
http://endeavor.med.nyu.edu/lit-med/directory/index.html
New York University School of Medicine
Felice Aull, Ph.D., Editor-in-Chief

Center for Ethics and Humanities in the Life Sciences
http://bioethics.msu.edu
Michigan State University

Center for Literature, Medicine, and Health Professions
http://www.neoucom.edu
Hiram College, Ohio
Carol Donley, Ph.D., Director

Institute For The Medical Humanities
http://snapper.utmb.edu/imh
University Of Texas Medical Branch At Galveston Texas

Medical Humanities Program
http://www.medlib.iupui.edu/ethics/mhhome.html
Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis
Indiana University School of Medicine

The Medical Humanities Concentration
http://www.davidson.edu/academic/medhum/medhum3.html
Davidson College

Medical Humanities Resources
http://www.library.dal.ca/kellogg/internet/medhum.htm
W.K. Kellogg Health Sciences Library
Dalhousie University

Division Of Medical Humanities
http://www.urmc.rochester.edu/smd/medhum
University Of Rochester Medical Center

Healing And The Arts
http://koop.dartmouth.edu/programs_arts.html
C. Everett Coop Institute at Dartmouth

Medical Humanities Resources
http://spectrum.troyst.edu/~bsibley/plaforhuma/medhumanities.html
State University Of Troy Alabama Library


Academic Journals:

Literature and Medicine

Journal of Medical Humanities

Academic Medicine

Medical Humanities Review

Lancet
http://www.thelancet.com/newlancet/current

JAMA
http://jama.ama-assn.org/

Mediphors: A Literary Journal Of The Health Professions
http://www.mediphors.org/

The Yale Journal for Humanities in Medicine
http://info.med.yale.edu/intmed/hummed/yjhm/index.html


Getting Started: A Medical
Humanities Reading List

Poetry Anthologies

  • Articulations: The Body and Illness in Poetry Jon Mukand, ed.
  • Uncharted Lines: Poems from JAMA Charlene Breedlove, ed.
  • Blood & bone: Poems by Physicians Angela Belli and Jack Coulehan, eds.
  • The Naked Physician: Poems about the Lives of Patients and Doctors Ron Charach, ed.

Short Story/Essay Anthologies

  • The Doctor Stories William Carlos Williams
  • The Doctor Stories Richard Selzer
  • Vital Lines: Contemporary Fiction about Medicine Jon Mukand, ed.
  • The Good Doctor Susan Mates
  • On Doctoring Richard Reynolds and John Stone, eds.
  • A Piece of My Mind Bruce Dan and Roxanne Young, eds.
  • The Blood of Strangers Frank Huyler
  • Life, Death, and In Between Harold Klawans

Books By Doctors About Doctoring And Becoming A Doctor

  • A Fortunate Man John Berger (life of British general practitioner in rural England in 1960s)
  • Midwives Chris Bohjalian (fictional account of midwife sued for death of patient; some interesting stuff about relationship between midwives and obgyns; some nice stuff about pregnancy and birth)
  • Patients and Doctors Jeffrey Borkan, Shmuel Reis et al (stories about family physicians and their patients from all over the world; I found the book not nearly as inspiring and moving as I'd hoped)
  • Family Doc Robert Brown (family medicine residency; contemporary; I found this book very self-satisfied and annoying)
  • Travels Michael Crichton (first section is about medical school; dated, but funny)
  • Tales My Stethoscope Told Me Martin Duke(reflections on practice by cardiologist; some endearing stories)
  • Battles of Life and Death David Hellerstein (medical school and psychiatric internship and residency; dated but interesting and positive)
  • Not All of Us Are Saints David Hilfiker (family medicine in urban ghetto; kind of discouraging)
  • Healing the Wounds David Hilfiker (family medicine in rural Minneapolis; fascinating exposition on what it means to practice medicine; thoughtful and honest; however, this guy is very ambivalent about being a doctor)
  • The Blood of Strangers Frank Huyler (emergency room medicine)
  • A Not Entirely Benign Procedure Perri Klass (medical school)
  • Baby Doctor Perri Klass (pediatric residency)
  • Life, Death, and In Between Harold Klawans (great stories about neurology practice)
  • Becoming a Doctor Melvin Konner (medical school - medical anthropologist who went back to medical school; went back to anthropology after his experience!; dated and angry, but an interesting perspective)
  • Gentle Vengeance Charles LeBaron (1st two years of medical school; dated)
  • The Midnight Meal Jerome Lowenstein (reminiscences about 30 years of practice as an internist; not that revealing)
  • A Measure of My Days David Loxterkamp (family medicine in rural Maine; a good account, not quite as discouraging as Hilfiker's)Margaret Mahoney - Saving the Soul of Medicine (obgyn doc hates managed care and saves herself from despair by opening up her own practice; pretty depressing to read)
  • The Intern Blues Robert Marion (pediatric internship; rather depressing)
  • Heirs of General Practice John MacPhee (dated but sympathetic account of an early bunch of family doctors)
  • The Best Medicine Mike Magee and Michael D'Antonio (doctors from a range of specialties and their patients comment on healthcare and the doctor-patient relationship; very upbeat, a little saccharine)
  • Doctors Talk about Themselves John Pekkanen (collection of brief interviews on whole range of topics with all sorts of doctors; they mostly sound pretty depressed)
  • When A Doctor Hates a Patient Richard and Enid Peschel (medical school and residency [radiation therapy]; dated but pretty positive and hopeful)
  • The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat; An Anthropologist on Mars Oliver Sacks (wonderful neurology tales, although apparently Sacks' reputation as a neurologist is not as shiny as his reputation as an author)
  • On the Ledge Neil Skolnit (family medicine in urban ghetto; more optimistic than Hilfiker, but he also burns out)
  • The White Life Michael Stein (a novel by a physician with some insightful stuff about personal/professional issues and his relationship with a diabetic patient)
  • A Piece of My Mind Roxanne Young (collections of JAMA essays by medical students, residents, and practicing physicians; usually pretty positive and upbeat)

Non-Fiction Works

  • The Wounded Storyteller Arthur Franks
  • The Illness Narratives Arthur Kleinman (old but still very good)
  • Stories of Sickness Howard Brody
  • The Healer's Art Eric Cassell
  • Empathy and the Practice of Medicine Howard Spiro, Mary McCrea Curnen, Enid Peschel, Deborah St. James, eds.

Specific readings on AIDS, cancer, heart, disease, disability, alcoholism, mental illness available on request

 



Any Problems, Comments, Or Suggestions?
Email Dr. Johanna Shapiro (jfshapir@uci.edu)
Copyright © 2000-2002, UCI College Of Medicine, Medical Education Dept.
University Of California, Irvine