Medical Humanities: Literature

This article explores how and why vision testing became a subject of debate and how opticians were able to successfully set out their claims to professional authority in the face of medical competition.

From BMC Journal of Philosophy, Ethics, and Humanities in Medicine

From JAMA Dermatology. Examines Kodachrome’s contributions to the field of dermatology, as well as its lessons for improving inclusive representation of patients of all skin tones in 21st century dermatologic curricula.

From the AMA Journal of Ethics. The art of learning to look can be taught using the medical humanities and especially visual arts such as paintings and film. Research shows that such training improves not only observation skills but also teamwork, listening skills, and reflective and analytical thinking.

From JAMA Ophthalmology. With this article, we aimed to trace the evolution and impact of eye-related terms common in written English during the past 2 centuries by studying digital resources.

Dr. Matthew Wetschler is an emergency medicine physician-artist based in northern California. Alongside practicing medicine, Wetschler uses acrylic paint and plaster to create medically-inspired artistic pieces.

From Documenta Ophthalmologica . Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) published his book, On Vision and the Colors in 1816. He started from Aristotle's linear color system and Goethe's three pairs of contrast colors.

To investigate the effects of eye diseases on several important artists who have been given little attention from a medical-historical viewpoint.

A leading journal in its field for more than three quarters of a century, the Bulletin spans the social, cultural, and scientific aspects of the history of medicine worldwide.

"The Journal of Medical Humanities is a peer-reviewed, scholarly journal that publishes innovative research, creative scholarship, poetry, essays, reviews, and short reports in the health humanities."

An International Journal for the History of Medicine and Related Sciences

Publishing the latest original research on the written beginnings of medicine in all its aspects... focusing on what practitioners of the healing arts did or taught, and how their peers, as well as patients, received and interpreted their efforts.

Hektoen International is a free online journal of medical humanities published by the Hektoen Institute of Medicine.

"Explore essays addressing the interface between arts, culture, and medicine, including movie and book reviews and rare glimpses into the therapeutic application of arts to the human body."

1903-1907

Published for The British Society for the History of Science. This leading international journal publishes scholarly papers and review articles on all aspects of the history of science.

"We seek to engage a more comprehensive understanding of health and wellness that purposefully aligns the wants and needs of patients and practitioners, and attends to the individual human condition and public health in ways that modern medicine has at times neglected."

Sociology of Health & Illness is an international English language journal which publishes sociological articles on all aspects of health, illness, medicine and healthcare.

Today, this independent index contains almost 17 500 peer-reviewed, open access journals covering all areas of science, technology, medicine, social sciences, arts and humanities.

Concerned with all aspects of health, illness, and medical treatment in the past.

Essay by Tony Miksanek, M.D., in NYU's Literature Arts & Medicine Magazine

Article by Jussi Valtonen, in the Journal of Medical Humanities

A blog by Columbia Narrative Medicine

Osler described these lectures as "an aeroplane flight over the progress of medicine through the ages."

Writings at the intersection of the biomedical sciences, arts, humanities and social sciences. The Introduction and 8 of the chapters in this Companion are Open Access. Follow the link, then scroll down to and click on the Resources tab to access them.

Chapter from Life is short, art long: The art of healing in Byzantium. New perspectives.

This book showcases opportunities to promote health through the arts from theoretical, methodological, pedagogical, and critical perspectives.

The authors of this book argue that educational processes in the health disciplines should model, integrate, and celebrate human connections because it is these connections that will foster the development of competent and caring health professionals.

OAPEN promotes and supports the transition to open access for academic books by providing open infrastructure services to stakeholders in scholarly communication.

"The Literature, Arts and Medicine Database (LitMed) is a collection of literature, fine art, visual art and performing art annotations created as a dynamic, comprehensive resource for scholars, educators, students, patients, and others interested in medical humanities." Maintained by the New York University School of Medicine since 1993.

Literature and Film recommendations from Dr. Orlando Mejía-Rivera, Universidad de Caldas, Colombia

A collection of first-person stories or poems, together with a visual image or haiku, about health care.

"Established in 2020, this new series welcomes research from scholars at any stage in their career working in the arts, humanities, and social sciences."

"For the From The Shelf series, MedHumChat founder and director Colleen Farrell asked leaders in medical humanities to share their reflections on some of their favorite books."

"The books listed here are (mostly) medical-related non-fiction and fiction titles."

DOAB is a community-driven discovery service that indexes and provides access to scholarly, peer-reviewed open access books and helps users to find trusted open access book publishers. All DOAB services are free of charge and all data is freely available.

The Network of the National Library of Medicine (NNLM) Reading Club. Search books by medical subject, using links on right side.