Program in Narrative Medicine

Program in Narrative Medicine
Name	Program in Narrative Medicine
Established	1990s
Type	Interdisciplinary humanities program
Focus	Narrative competence, clinical practice, reflective writing
Location	Multiple institutions
Notable people	Rita Charon, Arthur Kleinman, Eric Kandel, Martha Nussbaum, Elaine Scarry

Program in Narrative Medicine The Program in Narrative Medicine is an interdisciplinary initiative that brings together clinicians, writers, philosophers, and scholars to foster narrative competence in healthcare settings. Founded to bridge practice and humanities, the Program in Narrative Medicine integrates methods from literature, medicine, psychology, and ethics to enhance patient care, professional formation, and research. It operates across universities, hospitals, and cultural institutions, collaborating with medical schools, liberal arts colleges, and public health organizations.

Overview

The Program in Narrative Medicine draws on traditions from Columbia University, Harvard University, Yale University, King's College London, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, New York University, University of Chicago, Stanford University, University of Pennsylvania, Johns Hopkins University, Duke University, University of California, San Francisco, University of California, Los Angeles, Brown University, University of Toronto, McGill University, University of Edinburgh, University College London, National Institutes of Health, Mount Sinai Health System, Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Cleveland Clinic, Mayo Clinic, VA Healthcare System, Barnard College, Columbia College Chicago, Sage Colleges, Princeton University, Cornell University, University of Michigan, Northwestern University, Emory University, Vanderbilt University, Temple University, Rutgers University, George Washington University, Georgetown University, Howard University, Case Western Reserve University, University of Pittsburgh, Rice University, Baylor College of Medicine, University of Illinois Chicago, Arizona State University, University of Minnesota, University of Washington, University of California, Davis, University of California, Berkeley, University of Southern California, University of Maryland, Indiana University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, State University of New York, University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, University of Melbourne and University of Sydney.

History and Development

Early initiatives emerged alongside work by figures such as Rita Charon, Arthur Kleinman, Elaine Scarry, Martha Nussbaum, Paul Ricoeur, Geoffrey Hartman, Richard Horton, Susan Sontag, Arthur W. Frank, Francois Laplantine, Ivan Illich, Michael Balint, Thomas Csordas, William Carlos Williams, Anne Hunsaker Hawkins, Stephen Greenblatt, Harold Bloom, Northrop Frye, Lionel Trilling, M. H. Abrams, Wayne C. Booth, Hannah Arendt, Judith Butler, Jacques Derrida, Gilles Deleuze, Pierre Bourdieu, Michel Foucault, Emmanuel Levinas, Helena Norberg-Hodge, Clifford Geertz, Victor Turner, Anthony Giddens, Zygmunt Bauman, John Berger, Roland Barthes, Gayatri Spivak, Terry Eagleton, Edward Said, Frantz Fanon, W. E. B. Du Bois informed its intellectual formation. Institutional support expanded through partnerships with National Endowment for the Humanities, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Wellcome Trust, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, Graham Boeckh Foundation, Commonwealth Fund, Sloan Foundation, and Kresge Foundation.

Curriculum and Pedagogy

Programs typically feature courses taught by faculty with appointments at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, Harvard Medical School, Yale School of Medicine, Stanford School of Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Duke University School of Medicine, University College London Medical School, King's College London GKT School of Medical Education, UCL Division of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Weill Cornell Medicine, Brown Medical School, Emory University School of Medicine, Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine, University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine, McGill Faculty of Medicine, University of Melbourne Medical School, Monash University Faculty of Medicine, University of Sydney Medical School, Karolinska Institutet, National University of Singapore, Peking University Health Science Center, Fudan University, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, University of Cape Town Faculty of Health Sciences, Makerere University College of Health Sciences, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and University of São Paulo. Pedagogical methods include close reading of texts by William Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson, T. S. Eliot, Sylvia Plath, James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Virginia Woolf, Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Franz Kafka, Gabriel García Márquez, Isabel Allende, Haruki Murakami, Chinua Achebe, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Salman Rushdie, Orhan Pamuk, Alice Walker, Philip Roth, John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Walt Whitman, Anton Chekhov, Nikolai Gogol, Mikhail Bulgakov, Antonin Artaud, Søren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche, Homer, Dante Alighieri, Cicero, Plato, Aristotle and clinical case narratives from The New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, JAMA, BMJ" and works by contemporary clinician-writers like Atul Gawande, Oliver Sacks, Abraham Verghese, Siddhartha Mukherjee, Rachel Naomi Remen, Gordon Marino, Sheila Heti.

Clinical Integration and Applications

Clinical settings integrate narrative techniques in departments at Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, Psychiatry, Oncology, Palliative Care, Geriatrics, Nursing Schools, Social Work Schools, Public Health Schools, Rehabilitation Medicine, Emergency Medicine, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Family Medicine, Dermatology, Surgery, Radiology, Pathology, Neuroscience Departments, Pain Clinics, Addiction Medicine Clinics, HIV Clinics, Transplant Programs and Primary Care Clinics. Collaborative initiatives involve patient advocacy groups such as American Cancer Society, Alzheimer's Association, American Heart Association, American Diabetes Association, National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Susan G. Komen Foundation, American Psychiatric Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Nurses Association, Association of American Medical Colleges, World Health Organization, Pan American Health Organization and UNICEF.

Research and Outcomes

Research agendas align with work published in journals such as The Lancet, JAMA, BMJ, Health Affairs, Academic Medicine, Medical Humanities, Journal of Medical Ethics, Social Science & Medicine, Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry, The Lancet Psychiatry, PLOS Medicine, Annals of Internal Medicine, New England Journal of Medicine, The BMJ Open". Studies draw on methods from scholars like Carol Gilligan, Howard Gardner, Daniel Kahneman, Amartya Sen, Elinor Ostrom, Robert Putnam, Arlie Russell Hochschild, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Michel Foucault, Bruno Latour and outcomes reported to funders including National Institutes of Health, Wellcome Trust, National Science Foundation, Economic and Social Research Council.

Notable Programs and Institutions

Prominent centers and programs include initiatives at Columbia University, Brown University, Harvard University, Yale University, Stanford University, Johns Hopkins University, University of Pennsylvania, University of Toronto, McGill University, King's College London, University College London, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, University of Melbourne, Monash University, University of Sydney, Karolinska Institutet, Peking University, National University of Singapore, Seoul National University, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, University of Cape Town, Makerere University, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, University of São Paulo, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Imperial College London, University of Edinburgh, University of Manchester, University of Glasgow, Trinity College Dublin, National Autonomous University of Mexico, University of Buenos Aires, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Universidad de los Andes (Colombia), Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Médicas y Nutrición Salvador Zubirán, Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública (Mexico), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Veterans Health Administration.

Criticisms and Challenges

Critiques arise from scholars and practitioners including Eric Kandel, Steven Pinker, Noam Chomsky, Jerry Coyne, Richard Dawkins, Paul Bloom, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, Charles Murray, Nicholas Carr, Alain de Botton, Mark Sagoff, Michael Porter, Clayton Christensen, Atul Gawande who question scalability, empirical rigor, and integration with metrics-driven systems such as those promoted by Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, National Quality Forum, Joint Commission, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Institute for Healthcare Improvement, The King's Fund, Nuffield Trust and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Institutional barriers include resource constraints at public hospitals, community clinics, academic medical centers, professional associations and regulatory environments shaped by Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and national accreditation bodies.

Category:Narrative medicine