Medicine and the Humanities

In the earliest writing of stories, physicians and illnesses often played an important role. Some of the renowned scholars in the Jewish tradition, like Moses Maimonides was a philosopher, a prolific writer, and a physician. A few of the world-famous authors include: Francois Rabelais (1483-1553), Anton Chekhov (1860-1904), Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930), Oliver Sacks (1933-2015) and the contemporary Abraham Verghese (1955-), to name just a few. The connection between medicine and the humanities appears to have diminished in some domains due partially to the focus on the scientific advances in medicine and the diminished focus on the humanities, especially in higher education. This I suggest, is a problem for medicine.