The alcmaeon project: bringing humanities, the arts and medical education together

Abstract

The article is a systematic reflection on the Alcmaeon European project (2018-ES01-KA203-050606), which puts forth an alternative model for integrating the history of medicine into medical education. The project is developed within a partnership between education organizations, museums and universities from Spain, Great Britain, Italy, Greece and Romania. The project aims at shifting the focus of teaching the history of medicine from simply chronicling events to examining the process of medical development over time and studying it as a continuous inquiry by providing medical professionals with structured and harmonized online materials available in its own virtual museum and library. In addition, the arts can be used as a means to educate students of medicine in an agreeable atmosphere by means of focused interpretation and discussion with a view to developing their professionalism, selfawareness and communication skills, increasingly important assets for physicians. Bringing these disciplines together enables students to form deeper connections with patients and develop empathy and creativity. Overall, the focus group analysis highlighted that integrating the history of medicine into medical education is necessary as it gives students insights into past procedures and achievements, raises their awareness about the importance of medical and social ethics, provides lessons in medical education, empathy, charity work, community involvement, ethical standards, and laboratory research.