“Using the Humanities to Help Heal”—an August 13, 2020 feature post by E.J. Iannelli—leads its report on an innovative program for post-graduate students in Internal Medicine at the University of Washington with the experience of Travis Hughes, a third year UW internal medicine resident in Spokane, Washington, who found an unexpected path to self-understanding in East of Eden, the 1952 novel John Steinbeck believed he was born to write. Encountering the “malformed soul” of Steinbeck’s character Cathy Ames for the first time during a “Daily Dose of Humanities” discussion session designed to help primary care physicians better understand their patients and themselves, Hughes said that Steinbeck’s case history of a sociopath with “no remorse and very little empathy” left him with an important lesson: “that I shouldn’t lose touch with my emotions.” Along with long distance medicine and COVID-19 pandemic protocols, “the adoption of electronic medical record (EMR) software has sterilized the emotional connection between medical professionals and their patients”—a connection which can be recovered by insights gained from art, music, and literature. “I find that I learn not only about shared human experience but also about the people that I work with based on the choices of art that they bring in,” says Hughes of the program. “It puts my heart and mind in a more generous, empathetic position. And it makes me think about what life is like as a patient. I’m not just seeing a lab value, I’m seeing a person who’s similar to me.” The program is the brainchild of Dr. Darryl Potyk (at left in photo, with internal medicine residents), the chief for medical education at UW’s school of medicine in Spokane, Washington.

Photo by Young Kwak courtesy of The Inlander.