Is there a place for the arts in the medical curriculum?

Image credit: Hugo Glendinning

This autumn, London-based performing arts company, Clod Ensemble and Wales Millennium Centre presented Performing Medicine: The Anatomy Season. This a series of workshops, conversations and performance in Cardiff was supported by the Wellcome Trust. Two medical students from Cardiff Medical School reviewed the programme of events and reflected on how it has influenced their  medical studies.

“The first event, the conversation ‘Anatomy Acts ’, brought up fascinating points that really made me think differently about my medical education and practice,” wrote Sophie Fitzsimmons, in her 5^th year of study. “The final speaker, Brian Lobel, a performer and writer, gave an account of his experiences and feelings as a cancer patient going through various medical investigations. It was eye-opening to hear about a patient’s changing view of their body in illness – especially through a performed narrative – as well as their feelings of passivity while in the hands of the doctors.”

Reflecting on the performance piece ‘An Anatomie in Four Quarters’, Kitty Hardman, in her 3^rd year of study said: “What interested me most about the piece was the way it challenged the subject of perception. After each quarter we increased our closeness to the performers, beginning in the upper circle and ending up on the stage, walking amongst the performers as they danced.  The way the audience was directed and moved around the theatre; not knowing why, or really understanding what was going on, seemed, to me, comparable to a patient’s experience in hospital and the doctor-patient relationship, with the clinician always in control. This made me think about the important role the arts have to play in leading to a better understanding and communication between clinician and patient, along with a broader understanding on what it is like to experience an illness, as was achieved so well in Brian Lobel’s performance piece.”

Image credit: Paul, Nikki and Mike from Media Resources Cardiff University

The Inside Information workshop, held in the Cardiff University School of Medicine’s Simulation Suite, offered insight into the workings of the larynx from a variety of perspectives: anatomical; during a clinical situation in which an acutely ill patient was assessed, managed and incubated; and from the perspective of an opera singer, who explained how singers used the knowledge of anatomy and physiology to guide their technique. “It was a brilliant example of how you can arrive at a better understanding of a single subject by viewing it from a range of perspectives,” commented Kitty.

“I was fascinated by opera singer, Ros Evans’s non-clinical ways of describing anatomy in action – ‘sing through the back of your head’ – allowing an increased awareness and control over the position of one’s body,” added Sophie. “Could learning more about these intuitive descriptions of anatomy, as well as the technical ones we are so used to, teach us new ways of explaining difficult concepts to our patients?

“Reflecting on Performing Medicine: The Anatomy Season, Sophie wrote: “The Season has exposed me to a range of different viewpoints on the body and on medicine, many of which I had never considered before. Perhaps the most important message I took away was a reminder of a layperson’s perception of the body and of the vulnerability patients feel when in our hands.

“This is why I believe it is so important to try and integrate alternative ways of thinking about medicine into the curriculum. Ultimately, medicine is about understanding people – not just their anatomy and physiology, but also their fears, their hopes, their ideas. It is far too easy to become a ‘fact machine’ while at medical school and only learn what is required to get by; to forget what it is like to know nothing of the inferior vena cava or abductor pollicis brevis, and that there are in fact other ways of perceiving the body.

“Events and performances such as those created by Clod Ensemble can help us to become well-rounded, thoughtful and better doctors, who not only think more deeply about what we do but also (most importantly) about how our patients feel.

I hope that The Anatomy Season here in Cardiff will stimulate further events exploring the relationship between art and medicine in the city and at the medical school.”