Art, Health Disparities, and Medical Education

Historical and contemporary artists have used visual representations to lead, and contribute to, dialogue on healthcare disparities. As a first-year medical student, I created paintings of the historical segregated hospital wards at UVA and of the Fifeville neighborhood adjacent to UVA hospital in partnership with the UVA Center for Health Humanities and Ethics. Since then, I have worked with UVA faculty to study paintings, photographs, and murals that depict a variety of topics related to healthcare disparities, including ramp accessibility in New York City, childhood trauma in Mexico, the lack of mental healthcare services for black patients in South Africa, and black female empowerment in Charlottesville, VA. These works co-exist with a growing body of knowledge indicating that attentive observation and analysis of art, or “slow looking,” can contribute positively to medical students’ tolerance for ambiguity and uncertainty, their understanding of personal bias, their sense of others' worlds, and their capacity for reflection. Recognizing these benefits, the AAMC has issued formal calls for undergraduate and graduate medical education and continuing education programs to integrate the arts into their curricula. In this presentation, I propose discussing selected particular works of art, the stories of the artists who created them, and the role of the arts in medical education.

2022 UVA Health Disparities Conference - Breakout Session 2: Promoting Health Equity in Health Professions Education