S P E C I A L T H E M E A R T I C L E : U N I T E D S T A T E S Developing a Medical Humanities Concentration in the Medical Curriculum at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, New York Jeffrey Philip Spike, PhD ABSTRACT To the author’s knowledge, the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry is the only medical school in the United States that offers a concentration or minor in medical humanities for medical students. This article presents how the author first thought of offering a concentration in medical humanities and explains the educational elements students must satisfy. In 1998, the university underwent a major curriculum revision, dubbed the “double-helix” curriculum because of its goal of intertwining basic science and clinical medicine over all four years of medical school. As course director of the Medical Humanities Seminars for more than ten years, the author saw this change as an opportunity to expand the humanities curriculum. The number of ses- sions and courses offered in the first two years doubled as part of the transition to the new curriculum. In addition, the author proposed to the medical school curriculum steering committee to approve a concentration in clinical ethics and humanities. The concentration option moti- vates students to continue to pursue their humanistic interests in the third and fourth years of medical school. About 25% of the student body has signed up in the first two years the concentration has been available. Acad Med. 2003;78:983–986. T he University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry has had a Division of Medical Hu- manities since 1987. The Division was founded by Kathryn Montgomery, whose intention was clearly to emphasize literature and other humanities, and not to have the division evolve (or devolve) into a bioethics pro- gram. I was first brought to the Division in 1987 to teach philosophy and became a full-time faculty in 1988, just as Kathryn Montgomery left for Northwestern University. At that time the Division was in charge of a ten-week course (two hours per week) in the first year curriculum entitled “The Patient, the Physician, and Society.” Each week there was a lecture by a different expert; for example, one week on history of medicine, one week on medical anthropology, and one week on legal issues in medicine. Over the next few years, that course gradually expanded from ten to 16 weeks. In 1991 (when it was about to grow to 16 weeks) it was decided to divide it into two courses, each eight weeks long, one entitled “Ethics and Law in Medicine,” and the other “The Medical Humanities Seminars.” At that time I became the course director of the Medical Humanities Seminars. THE SEMINARS My conviction at the time was that although the Ethics and Law course had some essential content to cover for all the students, there were many different content areas in the humanities relevant to medicine, and students should be Dr. Spike is currently associate professor of medical humanities at the Florida State University College of Medicine, Tallahassee, Florida. At the time this paper was written, Dr. Spike was associate professor of medical humanities at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, New York. Correspondence and requests for reprints should be addressed to Dr. Spike, Florida State College of Medicine, Call Street at Stadium Drive, Tallahassee, FL 32306; e-mail: jeffrey.spike@med.fsu.edu. For more information, visit the program’s Web site at http://www.urmc. rochester.edu/smd/MedHum. A CADEMIC M EDICINE , V OL . 78, N O . 10/O CTOBER 2003 983