Understanding Both the Science and the Art of Medicine

This past year, we celebrated Human Factor’s 25th anniversary at the UMKC School of Medicine. As the current Marjorie and William Sirridge Endowed Professor, I am reminded daily to celebrate more than 50 years of our history. Even today, I spoke with a professor who trained under “Dr. Bill” Sirridge at UMKC years ago. Marjorie and William Sirridge taught and mentored an entire generation of medical students, residents and fellows. They developed the docent system that remains a model for other schools in partnering more senior physicians with medical students as they learn to take a patient-centered history and work in interprofessional teams to care for their patients. This system continues to strengthen students through iterative growth in skills, from pre-clinical through the clinical years. The Sirridge family also envisioned and accomplished the incorporation of the humanities into the education of future physicians. They were, in many ways, ahead of their time. We continue to teach students science-based facts and give them an understanding of physiology, anatomy, pharmacology and biochemistry. At the same time, we teach them to see their patient as a person and bring to bear both science and art in healing. I am proud to have had a hand in this process of integrating the humanities — history, the arts, ethics and professionalism — throughout our curriculum. In a 2015 address to the Royal College of General Practitioners in the UK, physician Iona Heath quoted the late George Eliot (the pen name of Mary Ann Evans, 1819-1880), a renowned novelist who commented on the evolving practice of medicine. In 1876, Eliot wrote, “Attempts at description are stupid: who can all at once describe a human being? Even when he is presented to us, we only begin that knowledge of his appearance which must be completed by innumerable impressions under differing circumstances. We recognize the alphabet; we are not sure of the language.” Medical reform and the distrust of doctors is nothing new. Eliot’s novel Middlemarch also addressed medicine as a science and an art form. Everything old is new again! As we move further into the second half century of this School of Medicine’s history, we carry forward the lessons learned through population health, sociology, anthropology, philosophy, ethics and theology as much as lessons learned from a pandemic, genomics and augmented intelligence. The humanities department will continue to champion these lessons, as well as the critical task of practicing humane medicine. We will spread the word of service-learning within our communities, develop reflective practice and bring our best selves to the clinical encounter. I hope that you may see some of these aims reflected in the artwork contained in this edition of Human Factor. I also hope that you take a moment to remember the vision and partnership of William and Marjorie Sirridge.

Brian S. Carter, M.D. Chairman and William and Marjorie Sirridge Professor Department of Medical Humanities and Bioethics UMKC School of Medicine