Master of Science in Narrative Medicine

Columbia University will launch a new Master of Science in Narrative Medicine in fall of 2009. Narrative medicine is an emerging clinical discipline that fortifies the practice of doctors, nurses, social workers, therapists, and other caregivers with the knowledge of how to interpret and respond to their patients' stories. “At a time when all news about health care is discouraging," says Dr. Rita Charon, who directs the Program in Narrative Medicine at Columbia and will be teaching in the new masters program, “this exciting event should give heart to sick people and those who care for them that patients can be heard, clinicians nourished, and deep health reached.” Proud to be the first degree program of its kind, this important educational advance improves the  quality of patient care and contributes to the healing of our ailing health care system itself.

Click here to read the official program announcement and go to www.ce.columbia.edu/ narrativemedicine to learn more about program of study, courses, faculty, and admissions. For further information, contact Program Director Marsha Hurst at mh812@columbia.edu or call Continuing Education 212-854-9699.

Announcing our first NIH/Narrative Medicine Summer Research Fellow!

Eliza Miller, P&S class of 2012, will spend the summer in the Program in Narrative Medicine, working on a project that proposes to answer, with both qualitative and quantitative research, why a shift towards narrative-based curricula in medical education may or may not be valuable. She will collect data on which medical schools include the arts in their curricula, and the nature of their programs (where they exist). She will also design and execute a study of Columbia students as they experience the required second-year narrative medicine seminars, in an attempt to assess the impact of the current curriculum.

Eliza Miller majored in dance and philosophy at Sarah Lawrence College, graduating in 1998. She went on to found a modern dance company in New York City, which she directed for 8 years, focusing on collaborations with contemporary composers. Her choreography received numerous grants and awards; the company performed at Danspace Project, the Joyce SoHo, Jacob's Pillow, and many other venues. In 2007 Eliza disbanded her company to pursue a career in medicine, but continues to teach choreography when she gets the chance. She lives in Washington Heights with her husband, composer Justin Samaha, and three children (six-year-old twin girls and a one-year-old boy). Eliza is fascinated with the creative process as it relates to learning and medicine, and looks forward to a summer of Narrative Medicine at Columbia.

The NIH/Narrative Medicine Summer Research Fellowships are jointly funded by the NIH K07 award “Human Behavior and Experience in Health and Illness” and the Program in Narrative Medicine. The K award has supported intensive curricular and faculty development for the Clinical Practice Course at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University.

Narrative Medicine Rounds, first Wednesday of each month from September to June at 5-7:00 pm in Faculty Club of CUMC.  446 P&S Building 630 West 168th Street (between Broadway and Fort Washington Avenue) New York, NY 10032.

Wednesday June 3, 2009 

Hallucinations

Neurologist Dr. Oliver Sacks, author of Awakenings, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, A Leg to Stand On and Musicophilia, gives the final Narrative Medicine Rounds for 2008-2009.  Dubbed the “poet laureate of medicine” by the New York Times, Dr. Sacks will speak on the topic of his next book:  hallucinations and the life of the visual brain.

NOTE: THIS EVENT WILL BE HELD IN A NEW LOCATION:

Hammer Health Sciences Center, Room 401.

701 W. 168th Street (Corner of 168th & Fort Washington Ave.) NY, NY

Narrative Medicine Workshops

The Program in Narrative Medicine offers intensive small group three-day workshops for health care professionals and literary scholars engaged in narrative medicine practice. Our next workshop will be held in Venice, Italy on September 20-22, 2009. If you are interested in attending our September workshop, please click on the link above for full information about the program and for the link to registration. We thank you for your interest in our program and for making it such a wonderful success.

If you need further information or to be placed on the waiting list for future workshops kindly get in contact with me either by phone or email.

Craig Irvine

212-304-7213

ci44@columbia.edu