Art class in medical school?

Yes, that's right: art class in medical school. And it was part of the required Foundations of Doctoring curriculum, not an elective. Needless to say, I was skeptical that spending three hours of my Tuesday afternoon in art class was a better use of my time than, say, studying for the cellular biology test coming up this Friday. Despite my skepticism (and borderline cynicism), I found this Art in Medicine class useful in helping me learn how to better make observations and report them.

We were given several artworks in small groups. Everyone turned away without looking except for a few people who tried to describe the work of art so that everyone else could visualize it. Then everyone turned around and talked about how their mental image of the painting was different from reality. One difficulty this exercise highlighted was the need for consistent reference points and language to communicate left versus right - which is apparently somewhat of an issue in medicine. Even though sidedness is always described with respect to the patient, people still get confused.

I enjoyed describing the paintings to my classmates, but no matter how thorough and systematic I tried to be, I inevitably left out some detail that greatly changed how my classmates drew their mental image.

Also relevant to the clinic, this exercise highlighted the difference between observation and interpretation. In everyday life, people tend to mix interpretation in with observation. When presenting a patient to an attending physician, though, the practice is to first present hard facts and observations then to use those observations to support an assessment or an interpretation. Take this painting, for example:


What observations can you make about this painting? What interpretations? If you were going to present this painting to an attending physician as you would a patient, what would it sound like? Click here for more information about this painting.