The Medical Humanities & the Arts Program (MedMuse) is the home for the arts and humanities at the medical school, with programs that support diversity and integrate the arts and humanities into medical education, scholarly endeavors, and the practice of medicine.
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Medical Humanities, Faculty Fellows
Apply Today! |Preferred application deadline: December 23, 2024
The Fellowship is open to current active Stanford faculty only. The 2025 cohort will meet twice/monthly, January 13, 2025- June 9, 2025, and weekly with a mentor.
More information | Watch info session recording (22:10)
Dr. Paul Kalanithi Writing Award
Deadline: January 6, 2025
Medicine & the Muse is pleased to announce an open call for unpublished short stories, essays or poetry addressing patients and providers facing chronic or life limiting illness.
Entries will be evaluated within their own genre: poetry, fiction and non-fiction. Please visit our info page to learn more about Dr. Paul Kalanithi and for details how to submit your work.
Paul Kalanithi was a physician writer and neurosurgery resident at Stanford University. In the final years of his training, he was diagnosed with metastatic lung cancer. His memoir, When Breath Becomes Air, beautifully chronicles his reflections on living with illness and the meaning of legacy. The Paul Kalanithi Writing Award was created in his memory.
Film Screening, Midnight Family
Wednesday, Feb 26th, 2025
Stanford Health Library | 5:30PM
Join us for a film screening of Midnight Family and discussion with Luke Lorentzen.
In Mexico City, the government operates fewer than 45 emergency ambulances for a population of 9 million. This has spawned an underground industry of for-profit ambulances often run by people with little or no training or certification. An exception in this ethically fraught, cutthroat industry, the Ochoa family struggles to keep their financial needs from jeopardizing the people in their care. When a crackdown by corrupt police pushes the family into greater hardship, they face increasing moral dilemmas even as they continue providing essential emergency medical services.
Lorentzen is an Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker and lecturer in Stanford University's department of Art and Art History. His film MIDNIGHT FAMILY (2019) was shortlisted for the best documentary Oscar after winning over 35 awards from film festivals and organizations around the world including a Special Jury Award for Cinematography at the Sundance Film Festival, Best Editing from the International Documentary Association, and the Golden Frog for Best Documentary from Camerimage.
“In this biomedical revolution, we need the humanities now more than ever.”
-Lloyd B. Minor, MD, Dean, Stanford University School of Medicine
http://www.stanforddaily.com/2014/04/06/the-humanities-and-medicine/
Program News
10/25/2024 Diagnosed with disease he studied, Stanford doctor puts his personal story at center of new class
Stanford Medicine physician Dr. Bryant Lin is the perfect professor to teach the course “From Diagnosis to Dialogue: A Doctor's Real-Time Battle with Cancer” at Stanford. And that’s not necessarily a good thing.
The class focuses on the cancer journey of a non-smoking patient diagnosed with lung cancer. Dr. Lin is that patient.
“I want to take something that is obviously very negative to me personally and get some benefit out of it for at least for other people,” Dr. Lin said.
10/25/2024 When the lung cancer patient is a beloved Stanford teacher and physician, learning gets personal
09/10/2024 Mental health, AI and inclusive health care among topics at Big Ideas conference
Speakers at the two-day event , sponsored by the Medical Humanities and the Arts Program, discussed a variety of topics that encouraged attendees to reimagine what the health care field could look like, if only some of their big ideas came to fruition. The ideas included using AI to create new antibiotics; the value of compelling, accurate science storytelling; retooling the ever-cumbersome electronic health record; and treating anxiety as a stage of grief.
Rally by the Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine department.
We at Medicine & the Muse join Stanford Medicine and its departments in denouncing the societal and structural racism that leads to violence against Black Americans. This systemic racism also leads to widespread health inequalities: a higher death rate from COVID-19, misconceptions about pain perception, and for Black women, a much higher breast cancer death rate. The list goes on. We at Medicine & the Muse stand for inclusion, diversity, respect, and justice. We stand with our Black friends, colleagues, patients, students, trainees, and others who are suffering.
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Stanford Medicine Orchestra
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Stanford Medicine Chorus
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Ongoing Events
Writing Medicine: Weekly reflective writing session for healthcare workers and their loved ones
A virtual space for healthcare workers and the people who love them to write, reflect and share.
Saturdays
10AM – 11AM PST