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Proposal for an academic Association for Medical Humanities
  1. Robert Arnott,
  2. Gillie Bolton,
  3. Martyn Evans,
  4. Ilora Finlay,
  5. Jane Macnaughton,
  6. Richard Meakin,
  7. William Reid

    https://doi.org/10.1136/mh.27.2.104

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      Following an initiative taken by the Nuffield Trust, an ad hoc steering committee consisting of the authors of this paper was convened under the auspices of the Trust in order to bring about the establishment of an academic Association for the Medical Humanities in the United Kingdom and Ireland (see page 63).1

      The present paper seeks to do two things: (A) to propose the founding of an academic Association for Medical Humanities, as a representative focus for medical humanities research and teaching in medical schools and universities in the United Kingdom and Ireland; and (B) to propose for discussion a conception of the nature, identity and scope of medical humanities as a field of study.

      (A) An Association for Medical Humanities

      1. Several universities and associated medical schools in the British Isles have introduced, or are preparing to introduce, the medical humanities as a field of academic teaching and/or research.

      2. The medical humanities needs a national, specific, academic association, comparable to those enjoyed by most if not all academic disciplines, to enable those engaged in the field to identify and discuss matters of common interest and to share their experiences regarding teaching and research.

      3. The Association for Medical Humanities is proposed as a voluntary academic association to play such a role.

      4. The Association for Medical Humanities should facilitate the development of both teaching and research in the medical humanities, by means of regular meetings and conferences where academic, professional and administrative matters can be discussed in person, subsequently to be pursued and disseminated through publications including the Medical Humanities journal (to which …

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      Footnotes

      • Robert Arnott is Director, Centre for the History of Medicine, University of Birmingham Medical School; Gillie Bolton is Research Fellow, School of Health and Related Research, University of Sheffield; Martyn Evans is Senior Lecturer, School of Health Science, University of Wales Swansea; Baroness Finlay of Llandaff is Vice-Dean of Medicine, University of Wales College of Medicine; Jane Macnaughton is Director, Centre for Arts and Humanities in Health and Medicine, University of Durham; Richard Meakin is Co-Director, Centre for Medical Humanities, Royal Free and University College Medical School, London; Sir William Reid is the former Parliamentary Ombudsman for Health, Edinburgh.