| Much of life (and some of medicine)centers on the ability to visually examine an object or situation and then to describe it both orally and in writing. Come hone these skills and check out some of the world's great art here in Chicago. Each week, we'll go to a different museum (including the Art Institute and MCA) where time will be spent on both individual exploration and group discussion of various works of art of different media. A final project will consist of designing your own JAMA cover with the accompanying brief essay.—Christina Yang, M2 and Al Telser, PhD Caring for patients near the end of life is a challenging and fulfilling part of being a physician in many different specialties, yet it is rarely addressed by medical school curricula. Without sufficient training in this area, many physicians feel unsure and uncomfortable at a time when their patients and their families need them the most. This seminar is designed to provide students with a foundation of knowledge upon which they can build proficiency in end-of-life care. It will include sessions on three of the main domains of palliative care: medical issues, ethical dilemmas and communication challenges. Through presentations from physicians, nurses, social workers, chaplains, and patients' family members, we will address the following questions: How does hospice and palliative care work? What is the role of the physician in end-of-life care? What are some of the ethical dilemmas in end of life care? How do cultural attitudes toward death and dying influence end-of-life care? What is bereavement, and what resources are available for grieving families? How do physicians handle their own grief after a patient has died?
—Joshua Hauser, MD, Gordon Wood, MD and Regina Stein, MD Medicine and the theater share a common language. We refer to the OR as an operating theater and speak of the roles of doctor and patient. We say that a patient presents symptoms. This seminar will rejoin these metaphors of medicine with the world of theater by exploring plays that dramatize the profound human experiences that medicine participates in. We will read the award-winning play "Wit" and two short dramas written by physicians. Brief writing and other exercises will focus on illness from various perspectives, on the patient-physician relationship, and on ways of imagining another person. In the process, we will become attuned to the frequently subtle ethical matters that inhabit clinical encounters. No previous experience in theater is expected, and all are invited.
—Carol Schilling, PhD, and Susan Arjmand, MD To be "embodied" is to know in and from the body, from a subjective place. Medicine is a practice that, paradoxically, can become disembodied, objectifying the patient, the physician, and their bodies. Tools mastered by dance/movement therapists, such as kinesthetic empathy, movement observaton and nonverbal attunement will open new methods of strengthening the physician-patient relationship. Through experiential learning, discussion, and readings such as Arthur Frank's The Wounded Storyteller, this seminar will move participants toward more accurate assessment, more effective treatment, and greater understanding of their patients experiences in and from their bodies in illness and in healing. Please come dressed comfortably to move. (Instructors are all faculty members from Columbia College Chicago's Dance/Movement Therapy & Counseling Department.)
—Susan Imus, MA,ADTR,LCPC,GLCMA, Lenore Hervey, PhD, ADTR, NCC, Shannon Lengerich,MA, ADTR, LCPC, and Laura Down, MA, DTR What do we learn from history? Using the rich resources of the Galter Health Sciences Library, this seminar will explore the history of medicine through the examination and review of primary texts. Students will choose a disease or health issue and trace it back from contemporary times to the 15th or 16th century, focusing on the connection between the literature of that period and what we know today. Each student will report on at least one primary text from the century that is that week's focus; at least one presentation will be with PowerPoint.
—James Shedlock, AMLS, Ron Sims, MA, and Ramune Kubilius, MALS This seminar seeks to accomplish two objectives:1) to provide medical students with core knowledge about the leading known cause of mental retardation in this country and possibly worldwide, and 2) to encourage them to think about various dimensions of FASD and the way it will influence their roles as physicians. Participants will make two off-site visits.
—Lisa Thornton, MD, and Kathy Mitchell of NOFAS This seminar will examine the nation's health care system and the current proposals for reform. We will focus on the economics of health care delivery and on the implications of the managed care revolution. The seminar will also examine the roles of the state and federal governments in developing a more equitable and cost efficient method of health care delivery.
—James R. Ferguson, JD This seminar is designed to provide students with a unique perspective on human anatomy. Participants will explore the human form through clay sculpture. This is a hands-on sculpting class wih a live model taught by a Chicago sculptor who has studied in Italy.
—Vincent Hawkins, MFA "It is my aspiration that health will finally be seen not as a blessing to be wished for, but as a human right to be fought for." UN SECRETARY GENERAL, KOFI ANNAN. Promoting and protecting health and respecting, protecting, and fulfilling human rights are inextricably linked. This course focuses on the relationship between them. It examine the origins of health and human rights concerns and defines the ethical obligations of health professionals in the face of human rights violations. The seminar aims to provide students with an understanding of the link between health and human rights through readings and class discussion.
—Anamaria Pastore, MA, MA How have well-known historical figures used visual and literary works to express their responses to their physical condition? In this seminar, we will analyze art works and personal testaments to gain a deeper understanding of the influence of physical condition on life and work. We will explore how, through documented expression, these figures have communicated to us the impact of their conditions. We will also consider the importance of visual, narrative and story-telling accounts as response modes. Each student will be expected to write and then discuss a weekly structured reaction to at least one work under review.
—Diann Rothwell Lapin, MLS, MEd For the first time, many of our beliefs about roles in society are crafted through the prism of the mass media. The field of medicine and the physician are not immune from such portrayals. Through readings and a mix of documentary, television and film clips, we will investigate and discuss the portrayals of attending physician, resident, and medical student; the portrayal of positive and negative medical outcomes; and the portrayal of race, gender, and ethnicity in medicine. Clips will be drawn from a large variety of sources including: No Way Out, Frankenstein, ER, House, Chicago Hope, Grey's Anatomy, Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman, Philadelphia, Untold Stories of the ER, and MASH.
—David Rosenthal, M2 Do health care businesses have social responsibility or does business simply "do good" for public relations? This seminar will explore both historical cases and current dilemmas facing health care firms faced with decisions regarding social responsibility and philanthropy. We will use a case-based method to discuss hospital, pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms, universities, and health insurance companies. There will be limited but essential readings from the news, and each student will be responsilbe for presenting one topic as part of a team. Executives from healthcare firms will participate in seminar discussions pending scheduling. No busines background necessary; sign up if you have any interest in public health, health systems and good debates!
—Arjun Venkatesh, M2 Shockingly few physicians, nurses, medical students, and allied health professionals are aware that there is a (board-certifiable) medical specialty of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. This seminar seeks to explore the subject of physical healing from three perspectives: the actual practice of physical healing, using case study methods; the philosophical underpinnings and characterization of the healing achieved through physical medicine; and a sociological critique that situates physical healing within the broad sociopolitical and economic landscape encompassing both conventional, allopathic medical culture and the chaos of the contemporary American healthcare "system." A Chicago-based master physical therapist and NIH resarcher, Rhonda Kotarinos, MSPT, will participate. Inquiry based and experience-near approaches to learning.
—Eliezer T. Margolis, PhD Certain personality traits have been found to be remarkably consistent in medical students and physicians. These traits allow us to be successful and happy in our work. However, they also can impede optimal functioning - professionally and personally. We will begin our exploration with descriptions of being a patient written by physicians with a variety of illnesses. These case studies reveal the internal and external factors that lead physicians to inadequately maintain their own health and to avoid seeking treatment when they are ill. We will then examine other areas of physicians' professional, personal and family lives where our psychological inclinations can diminish balance and fulfillment.
—Patti Tighe, MD What is a role of physician-expert in a court of law? This class will focus on the ethics and law guiding physicians' conduct when they enter courtrooms as expert witnesses. We then will address the issues of disease, impairment, disability, causation, and competency in the legal arena. This seminar will focus on particular medico-legal issues and analyze how ethics, law, science, and the rules governing courtroom expert testimony affect physicians' actions.
—Alexander Obolsky, MD Medical drama abounds on television, bombarding its audience with loud crashes, miraculous recoveries, and scenarios reaching beyond the common reality of medicine, but threatre has the potential to interact in a different manner with medicine. How would plays written by medical students and physicians differ? In this seminar we will write scenes and short dramas based on clinical encounters as a way to imagine the lives of our patients outside hospital and clinic and to think about such things as how the interplay of nature and nurture affects our practice. At the end, we'll read or perform what we've written.
—Wendy Sherman, M2 Every doctor-patient encounter is to some degree improvised, because physicians often don't know who will walk in the room, or what that patient will say or do. Like th professional improvisors you see at places like Second City, physicians must have the confidence and ability to listen, observe, and then spontaneously respond in stressful or confusing circumstances. This seminar will help you strengthen those skills by teaching a basic improv workshop with an awareness of, but not exclusive focus on, the medical context. The emphasis is on collaboration, discovery, and having fun -- so don't worry about being funny. No previous theater experience is needed. Students will be required to see at least one professional improv show outside of class.
—Katie Watson, JD "You know my methods, Watson . . ." Clinical judgment is the quintessential skill of a good clinician. What is it and how is it developed? The Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, MD, provide clues. In addition to stories that illustrate "the Method," we wil consider concepts of reasoning advanced by Voltaire, Charles S. Peirce, Jerome Bruner, Jerome Kassirer, and AI theorists, all of whom -- philosophers, psychologists, physicians -- have something to say about the construction of knowledge from evidence that (very "unscientifically") must also serve as the test of the knower's hyposthesis.
—Kathryn Montgomery, PhD | | |
