Chinese Medical Humanities Education - History, Current Status and Prospects

Author: Zhang Daqing
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2006-05-01
Features: "Human-centeredness" is the core value of social development, and the life and health of individuals are the foundation of human-centeredness. Therefore, medical technology and healthcare services that prioritize caring for life, focusing on health, and reducing diseases are important indicators reflecting the level of social development and civilization. Contemporary medical technology is advancing rapidly, with clinical diagnostic and treatment methods constantly being updated. However, healthcare costs have skyrocketed while public satisfaction with healthcare services has significantly declined. Tracing the root cause, it is the changing relationship between medicine and people. As a result, calls for medicine to return to a more humanized orientation, away from being overly technical, dehumanized, and bureaucratic, are growing louder. Re-examining the purpose of medicine and re-establishing its humanistic value has become a widely discussed topic among medical professionals and the public. Since the 1970s, the interdisciplinary field of medical humanities, primarily focused on the social, ethical, legal, and cultural aspects of medical technology and healthcare services, has rapidly emerged. Medical schools in Europe and America have incorporated medical humanities into their curricula as essential components, proposing that medical humanities are the foundation for cultivating high-quality doctors, forming a new educational model that integrates natural sciences, medical sciences, and medical humanities and social sciences. In scientific research, from international projects like the Human Genome Project and AIDS control to clinical drug research and the clinical application of new technologies, research related to the humanities and social sciences is included. People have come to realize that solving the challenges faced by contemporary medical development and healthcare services requires interdisciplinary research and cross-disciplinary collaboration, as well as highly qualified medical professionals with broad knowledge and a strong sense of social responsibility. In China, many universities have established departments, research institutes, or centers of medical humanities, and the faculty and researchers in these fields have made significant contributions to advancing discipline development and educational reform. In 2005, the Advisory Committee on Cultural Quality Education of Higher Education Institutions under the Ministry of Education proposed deepening cultural quality education and promoting the integration of humanistic education with disciplinary education at the "10th Anniversary of Cultural Quality Education" conference. Medical humanities are a group of interdisciplinary fields that integrate humanistic education with disciplinary education. To further promote the development of medical humanities in China, as well as educational reform and academic research, and to reflect on the history, current state, theory, and methods of medical humanities in China, the Advisory Committee on Cultural Quality Education of Higher Education Institutions, the Medical Philosophy Committee of the Chinese Society for the Dialectics of Nature, and the Peking University Health Science Center held the "National Conference on Medical Humanistic Education in Higher Education Institutions" in Beijing in May 2006. We have selected some conference papers, relevant works by domestic experts and scholars engaged in medical humanities education and research in recent years, and brief introductions to educational and research institutions of medical humanities in some Chinese universities. We have also included recommendations from the Medical Philosophy Committee of the Chinese Society for the Dialectics of Nature on strengthening the development of medical humanities in China, the British Medical Association's suggestions on undergraduate medical education—"Doctors of Tomorrow," and brief introductions to medical humanities teaching and research institutions abroad. We hope this collection will provide readers with a comprehensive understanding of medical humanities education and research both domestically and internationally.