Our Program

This unique program offers medical students an opportunity to take classes that tie together the medical arts, bioethics and the humanities. It is truly a one-of-a-kind program that has no equal.

The Sirridge Office of Medical Humanities was established at the School of Medicine in 1992 with the goal of expanding opportunities to provide humanities courses for both premedical students and students in UMKC’s six-year BA/MD program.

It was initially funded and coordinated by Doctors Marjorie and William Sirridge, who were founding physician-docents when the School of Medicine opened in 1971. The school received a grant in 1995 from the Culpeper Foundation to plan and develop an undergraduate medical humanities curriculum for students in both the medical school program and in undergraduate programs at UMKC. The UMKC School of Medicine is a member of the Arnold P. Gold Foundation whose mission advances humanism in medicine.

In 2008, the office was renamed The Sirridge Office of Medical Humanities and Bioethics to reflect its mission of infusing medical humanities and bioethics throughout the six-year curriculum. The first Sirridge Missouri Endowed Professor in Medical Humanities and Bioethics was also appointed.

“Wherever the art of medicine is loved, there is also
a love of humanity.”

Hippocrates
Physician & Philosopher

Mission

The mission of the Sirridge Office of Medical Humanities and Bioethics is to integrate arts, humanities and bioethics into THE STUDY AND PRACTICE OF medicine.