Authorship in the Medical Humanities: Breaking Cross-field Boundaries or Maintaining Disciplinary Divides?

Mainstreaming medical humanities in continuing professional development and postgraduate training

“…Working with engaged scholars in the arts and humanities is clearly also a vital element of such programmes but requires consideration and insight into the challenges and rewards of interdisciplinary working, mindful that current publication practices suggest that such engagement remains a minority practice in the medical humanities for both clinicians and scholars in arts and humanities. 5,39,40 Medical humanities add depth and richness to the practice of medicine. As eloquently outlined in an insightful critique of narrative medicine, the study of medical humanities should provide hinterland and perspective: hinterland as a connection with broader culture and the world beyond the medical school and the hospital, and perspective as an understanding of the place of medicine in society, the historical forces that have shaped it and the challenges it will face in the future.…”

“…This is all the more important in terms of an increasing separation between clinician scholars active in the field and those from the arts and humanities: a recent study confirmed this divide with little indication of joint working between both groups of disciplines. 5 The range of interests and disciplines involved is large, including but not confined to literary and film studies, theatre, music, history, philosophy, ethics, and arts and health. Ethics is the one element often addressed in postgraduate training, if to a lesser extent in CPD.…”