Medical humanities in a rapidly changing world. Is there any worth in it?

Abstract

Humanism has shaped mankind during the last centuries, but technology and recent social changes have shifted the paradigm towards a data driven society where humans are no longer at the center of the world. Medicine is not alien to this new situation; clinical practice is rapidly changing, and medical curricula must adapt to it. Is there any place for humanities in medical training? In this paper we analyze the present situation of humanism in a technology flooded health environment, the roll of humanities in contemporary medical curricula and we propose a series of measures to be taken with the purpose of educating the next generation of doctors.

Keywords

• Humanism
• medical humanities
• dataism
• burn-out syndrome