ABSTRACT
Kidd and Connor (2008) documented a diversity of views as to what constitutes the ‘medical humanities’ (hereafter ‘MH’)—now also widely termed ‘health humanities’ (Atkinson et al. 2015)—noting a lack of consensus regarding associated best practice teaching approaches in Canadian medical schools. Appendix A summarises information obtained in 2005–2006 from key informants in their study. They described the field as having marginalised status, where a biomedical and evidence-based medicine model has dominated since the 1990s (Mykhalovskiy and Weir 2004). Recognising the heterogeneity and fluidity of the developing field (Hurwitz 2013; Bleakley 2015), we define MH as a field embracing perspectives and approaches across the arts, humanities and social sciences focused on educational goals concerned with the human side of medicine. We note Kidd and Connor’s (2008: 47) definition of MH as inclusive of content and approaches that encourage “reflection and critical thinking about the human body and mind” and related systems.
