After receiving a grant from the Association of American Medical Colleges in 2020, Drs. Ricardo Nuila, Andrew Childress and Larry Laufman, along with instructors Burke Nixon and Stacy Nigliazzo, launched the Humanities Expression and Arts Lab, under the Office of the Senior Dean, at Baylor College of Medicine.

H.E.A.L. events are open to Baylor students, residents, post-doctoral associates and faculty and on some occasions to all Texas Medical Center ember institutions as the new program works to help healthcare workers recognize the meaning behind their daily practice of medicine.

“Literature opens our eyes to others’ experiences,” Childress explained. “It’s not just about offering courses or workshops but trying to figure out ways that they can integrate the arts and humanities into their training and their medical practice.”

Javier Zamora, author of “Solito” spoke at Baylor College of Medicine in October 2022.

The program originally started as the Narrative Medicine Program, but the team wanted to broaden its offerings into a pathway that will help students, residents and faculty find other ways to approach medicine. H.E.A.L. activities include creative writing and narrative workshops, a speaker series and storytelling events through collaborative partners like the Museum of Fine Arts – Houston.

“We had an ‘art of the human body’ course where we partnered with the Museum of Fine Arts and brought students to the museum to hone their visual observation skills and to teach empathy,” Childress said. “But we ended up expanding [our program] to include residents thanks to the AAMC grant. Residents now have this didactic time on Wednesdays where they’re able to, in addition to going to the museum, (hear) lectures and (learn) how to read poetry, reflect on their writing and all kinds of fun stuff.”

The speaker series features big literary names like Esmé Weijun Wang, who wrote the New York Times bestseller “The Collected Schizophrenias,” and Javier Zamora, another Times bestselling author of “Solito.” For their most recent event, the H.E.A.L. team invited physician-author Dr. Abraham Verghese to share from his latest book, “The Covenant of Water,” and to discuss his writing and career.

“We want to not only introduce folks to really powerful and fascinating perspectives they hadn’t considered, but also well-written pieces, so they can see the power of language and the craft that goes into developing these stories,” Childress explained.

Javier Zamora, author of “Solito” spoke at Baylor College of Medicine in October 2022.

As H.E.A.L. continues to grow, students are putting their spin on the program, including working on ways to expand it further.

“One of the graduate students applied for a GLOW award to offer more writing workshops. The student did this completely on their own initiative,” Childress said. “I am continuously amazed at how interested in the medical humanities these students are. They’re just really driven to make it a reality, and a lot of our success is due to them.”

At the end of the day, H.E.A.L.’s goal is to bring a better understanding of the patient and their background.

“Sometimes in medicine, healthcare professionals get focused on one aspect of the patient, one aspect of the patient’s story, and they’re not open to alternative viewpoints on it, not open to counter-narratives. And so on – for any activity,” he said. “Whether it’s a writing workshop or a humanities course, I want them to kind of learn to listen and be more attuned to others’ perspectives.”

By Anna Kiappes