Literature & Medicine: Humanities at the Heart of Health Care is a national, award-winning, hospital-based, scholar-led humanities reading and discussion program open to all UMKC School of Medicine students, faculty and staff.
Each part of the series consists of dinner and a reading and discussion of literature related to medicine. The monthly event at Diastole begins about 5 p.m. on a Thursday, with dinner served at 5:30 p.m., followed by the reading and discussion.
Lynda Payne, Ph.D., R.N., Sirridge/Missouri Endowed Professor in Medical Humanities and Bioethics, serves as the program facilitator. Marie Thompson, dental librarian, is the coordinator/host. For more information, contact Thompson at 235-2063 or at thompsonmarie@umkc.edu.
The Literature and Medicine program will benefit both health care professionals and their patients. The program has received major support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and has been cited as a patient-quality initiative.
Literature and Medicine
January 20
5-8 p.m., Diastole
Session: Utility
Reading: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot (2010)
Literature and Medicine
February 17
5-8 p.m., Diastole
Session: Futility
Reading: The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath (1971)
Literature and Medicine
March 17
5-8 p.m., Diastole
Session: Fantasy
Reading: Lying Awake by Mark Salzman (2001)
Literature and Medicine
April 14
5-8 p.m., Diastole
Session: Mission
Readings: La Clinica: A Doctor’s Journey Across Borders by David P. Sklar (2010), The Log of Pi (poem) by Marc J. Straus http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/poems/logofpi.ms.html and Not God (poem) http://litlmed.med.nyu.edu/poems/notgod.ms.html
Literature and Medicine
May 12
5-8 p.m., Diastole
Session: Humor
Reading: Mark Twain and Medicine: Any Mummery will Cure by K. Patrick Ober (2003)
