Health Humanities – ONLINE

ELEC502 / PMDN 662

Department
Internal Medicine

Clinical or Non-Clinical Course
Non-Clinical

Physician Assessed Patient Facing
No

Prerequisites
Completion of Phase 2 Clerkships

Goal

This elective focuses on the application of creative arts and humanities disciplines to discourse about human health and wellbeing. These “health humanities” may take many forms, from the history of medicine to medical ethics, from literature and creative writing to music, film, and the visual arts. A portion of the instruction will be dedicated to analysis and discussion of the COVID-19 pandemic through a health humanities lens. The student will survey these forms with the course director and identify a form in which to realize a personal creative project. Current and potential future academic research in health humanities will be discussed as well.

Objectives

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

  1. Describe the benefits and tenets of health humanities from various perspectives and applications.
  2. Analyze and appraise different modalities of health humanities including writing, music, film, and the visual arts.
  3. Create an artistic or analytic project in response to a healthcare challenge students identify.

Method of Assessment

  • Standard Non-clinical Evaluation - Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory

Course Director
Elsa Vazquez-Melendez, MD

Course Coordinator
Ashley Finney
afinney@uic.edu
309-840-7268

Location
Online

Setting
Neither Outpatient nor Inpatient

Night Call
No

Laboratory
No

Weekends
No

House Staff
No

Number of Learners per Block
Min 3; Max 12

Duration
2 weeks

Who is this elective available to
M4s (in Phase 3)

Blocks Available
6a & 10a (varies by AY)