Doha – March 3, 2025: A conference hosted by Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar (WMC-Q) and Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts Qatar (VCUarts Qatar) convened more than 80 expert speakers to discuss the integration of the humanities into medical education and clinical practice.

 

The two-day conference, which was held at WCM-Q, brought together researchers, educators, students and practitioners to examine the ways in which the medical and health humanities can help medical colleges develop more human-oriented physicians, with the ultimate goal of enhancing healthcare outcomes for patients

 

The event featured two expert keynote speakers: Prof. Paul Crawford, professor of health humanities at the University of Nottingham, UK; and Dr. Mohammed Ghaly, professor of Islam and biomedical ethics at the Center for Islamic Legislation and Ethics at Hamad Bin Khalifa University.

 

In his speech, Dr. Crawford set the medical humanities within the context of clinically relevant developments in the field, and outlined the significant impacts that creative practices can have on health and wellbeing. Dr. Ghaly spoke about Islamic ethics and their intersection with healthcare and the biomedical sciences in the context of the medical humanities.

 

The course directors of the event were Dr. Alan Weber, professor of English at WCM-Q, and Dr. Byrad Yyelland, associate professor of social sciences at VQUarts Qatar. Dr. Mohamud Verjee, former Assistant Dean of Medical Student Affairs at WCM-Q and Dr. Fella Benabed of Annaba University, Algeria served on the Organizing Committee. Dr. Weber said: 'The large number of abstract submissions from every continent attests to the impact that the medical and health humanities are having on health systems globally. As AI is poised to take over some of the routine functions of medicine, empathy and humanism will become increasingly important values in health and medicine.'

 

According to Dr. Yyelland: 'Just as healthcare is rapidly changing, the foundational learning that supports the development of an empathetic, open-minded and truly human physician must evolve as well. Integration of the arts and humanities with medicine is vital to this evolution.'

 

Many of the participants submitted original research to the conference, with a total of 73 papers presented on the topics of narrative medicine, medical sociology, philosophy of medicine, medical ethics and narrative ethics, literature and medicine, arts therapies and arts-in-health, healthcare communication, the history of medicine and other humanistic initiatives in health and medicine. All of the submissions were peer-reviewed and selected papers will be included in a published volume to be released at a later date.