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About HEAL
Stunning technological and biomedical advances in the health sciences have transformed the education and training of future physicians. Medical students must absorb an ever-expanding body of scientific knowledge and gain skills of life-long learning. In order to foster attentive and compassionate physicians who are well versed in both the science and the art of medicine, it is incumbent upon medical schools to incorporate study of the arts and humanities into their core curricula. Through deliberative engagement in these fields, Keck School of Medicine students are encouraged to explore ethical decision-making, cultural differences in worldview and the complexities of the interpretive act — the multiple ways of knowing — that are essential to the effective practice of the healing arts.

Keck School of Medicine’s HEAL Program, with its emphasis on humanities, ethics, economics, art and law, promotes each student’s professional formation and exploration of his or her own values and motivations for pursuing the calling of medicine. The four-year curriculum teaches future doctors how to reflect on patients as whole beings, not just as injuries or illnesses to be treated. It begins with personal reflection through autobiographical essay writing and self-evaluation, and it helps students develop interpretive skills — for example, by integrating the arts through structured museum or gallery visits. The curriculum moves on to examine the role of the physician in society through course work on ethics and medical humanities and through electives that include Narrative Medicine, Law and Medicine, and the History of Medicine.