Do medical schools teach medical humanities? Review of curricula in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom

Abstract

Rationale and objectives Medical humanities are becoming increasingly recognized as positively impacting medical education and medical practice. However, the extent of medical humanities teaching in medical schools is largely unknown. We reviewed medical school curricula in Canada, the UK and the US. We also explored the relationship between medical school ranking and the inclusion of medical humanities in the curricula. Methods We searched the curriculum websites of all accredited medical schools in Canada, the UK and the US to check which medical humanities topics were taught, and whether they were mandatory or optional. We then noted rankings both by Times Higher Education and U.S. News and World Report and calculated the average rank. We formally explored whether there was an association between average medical school ranking and medical humanities offerings using Spearman's correlation and inverse variance weighting meta‐analysis. Results We identified 18 accredited medical school programmes in Canada, 41 in the UK, and 154 in the US. Of these, nine (56%) in Canada, 34 (73%) in the UK and 124 (80%) in the US offered at least one medical humanity that was not ethics. The most common medical humanities were medical humanities (unspecified), history, and literature (Canada); sociology and social medicine, medical humanities (unspecified), and art (UK); and medical humanities (unspecified), literature and history (US). Higher ranked medical schools appeared less likely to offer medical humanities. Conclusions The extent and content of medical humanities offerings at accredited medical schools in Canada, the UK and the US varies, and there appears to be an inverse relationship between medical school quality and medical humanities offerings. Our analysis was limited by the data provided on the Universities' websites. Given the potential for medical humanities to improve medical education and medical practice, opportunities to reduce this variation should be exploited.

Perception of newly graduated physicians toward ethical education in medical schools: a Brazilian cross-sectional nationwide study

“…These findings are supported by previously published international studies: out of the analyzed schools in a recent study by Howick et al, medical ethics was offered as part of the curriculum in all schools in Canada, in 78% of the schools in the United Kingdom (UK), and in 87.6% of the schools in the United States (US). Excluding medical ethics, a humanities course was offered by 56% of the Canadian medical schools, 73% of the schools in the UK, and 80% of the schools in the US 12 . In another study regarding the presence of humanities subjects in the medical curriculum of Italian and Spanish schools, it was found that all analyzed schools included at least one subject with humanities content 13 .…”

History, Present Situation and Development Trend of Foreign Medical Humanities Education Research—Knowledge Graph Analysis Based on Citespace

“…In order to demonstrate that the medical humanities are increasingly recognized as having a positive impact on medical education and practice, the institute searched the course websites of all accredited medical schools in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States and calculated the average ranking. The results show that the scope and content of medical humanities courses in accredited medical schools in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States are different, and there seems to be an inverse relationship between the quality of medical schools and medical humanities courses [3]. Harvard Medical School, ranked second in terms of publications, provides concrete examples of how the implications of Web 2.0 and other tools can be realized in innovative ways to help achieve skill development in the medical humanities.…”

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“…Although it is widely accepted that humanities along with social and behavioural sciences should become an integral component of medical training, the extent to which these are included in medical curricula and how well they are taught in medical schools is not well known [6 ▪ ]. It is also unclear who teaches humanities, when during the medical course are students exposed to humanities and how well these components are integrated into the overall medical curriculum in medical schools across the world.…”

“…Howick et al [6 ▪ ] searched the curriculum websites of all accredited medical schools in Canada, the United Kingdom (UK), and the United States (US) to check which medical humanities topics were taught, and whether they were mandatory or optional. They also noted the rankings of the medical schools and explored the relationship between medical school ranking and the inclusion of medical humanities in the curricula.…”