Rowan University

School of Osteopathic Medicine

Medical Humanities: 2015-2016
Course Director: Niel Rosen, JD, PhD
rosenjn@rowan.edu
856-566-6246
Office Hours by Appointment: UDP 3912
Goals: This course is designed to meet three interrelated goals: (1) to deepen each students
awareness that the biomedical model of differential diagnosis and pathophysiologically targeted
interventions is only one of many ways to understand illness and healing; (2) to develop the students
ability to shift his or her attention back and forth between the biomedical perspective on the disease
process and the possibility of therapeutic intervention, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, the
patients everyday understanding of what it means to be ill and to be healed; and (3) to help each
student appreciate how her or his professional identity is shaped by a wide range of cultural influences,
most of which are best explained by using the methods and materials of the liberals arts.
Requirements: Students must complete all of the requirements to pass the course. Failure to
complete any of the requirements will result in failure of the course. NOTE WELL: Medical Humanities is
a required course during the fourth year. Consequently, students who fail the course will not be
able to graduate. There are two kinds of requirements: attendance and reflection.
The attendance requirement involves coming to at least one live presentation by a guest
speaker and, within 36 hours, submitting a written response to specific prompts on One45.
Students may also be required to watch up to three videotaped presentations; if so, they must
submit a written response on One45 for each presentation they are required to watch. Note
well: You must satisfy the requirements described in one of the three statements below. The
attendance requirement incentivizes attending live presentations by guest speakers.
1. Attend only one live presentation by a guest speaker and, within 36 hours, submit a written
response to that presentation on One45
a. PLUS watch three videotaped presentations and submit written responses to all three
on One45; note that all three videotaped presentations must be by guest speakers.
2. Attend two live presentations by guest speakers and, no less than 36 hours after one of the
live presentations, submit a written response to that presentation on One45
a. PLUS watch two videotaped presentations by guest speakers and submit written
responses to both on One45.
3. Attend three live presentations and, no less than 36 hours after one of the live presentations,
submit a written response to it on One45. Note that the submission on One45 must be in
response to a guest speaker. However, only two of the three live presentations must be by a
guest speaker; in other words, one of the three live presentations can be by the course
director.
The reflection requirement has two parts. First, it involves watching a movie, Departures,
reading an essay, Diagnosing Suffering by Eric Cassell, from the Annals of Internal Medicine
1999; 131:531-534, and listening to a podcast, Abraham Vergheses A Touch of Sense,
published by Health Affairs. The movie is available on iTunes or Amazon; the essay is accessible
via the librarys website; and the podcast can be found online at
http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/28/4/1177/suppl/DC1. Second, a blog has been set up for
each of these items on blackboard. Each student is required to post an entry in response to
specific prompts, comment on the posts of at least two other students, and reply to two of the
comments made on his or her entry.

NOTE WELL: The prompts mentioned for both the attendance and reflection requirements will be
available on One45 and blackboard, respectively. Students who complete all of the aforementioned
requirements will pass this course. Students who fail to complete any one of these requirements will fail
the course.