I'm an emergency physician, medical educator, and a writer. My academic work emerged from a fascination with the many ways medicine is a creative act and how creativity, the arts, humanities, and narrative are essential clinical skills for embracing the uncertainty, ambiguity, and complexity at the heart of clinical decision-making and caring for others.
I graduated with a BA in English from Union College in Schenectady, NY and then received my medical degree from the SUNY at Stony Brook School of Medicine. I completed the emergency medicine residency at ChristianaCare Health System and later a fellowship in medical ethics at Harvard Medical School.
I’ve encouraged scholarly adventure and exploration in my longstanding role as director of the Medical Humanities and Bioethics Scholarly Concentration.
My present work centers on arts and health research, complexity in patient care, and designing authentic spaces for dialogue on messy and difficult topics facing healthcare teams. I'm also on the editorial board for the AMA Journal of Ethics and serve on the Steering Committee for the Health Humanities Consortium.
My books of short fiction include What's Left Out and Fourteen Stories: Doctors, Patients, and Other Strangers. (Kent State University Press)
My latest book is Tornado of Life: A Doctor's Journey Through Constraints and Creativity in the ER (MIT Press) a book of narrative essays.
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"Decision Aids, Doorknob Moments, and Physician-Patient Solidarity in EDs." 2022.
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| Ahmed F, Baruch J, Armstrong P. "Examining the Constructs of Burnout, Compassion Fatigue, Secondary Traumatic Stress in Physicians Using Factor Analyses." Frontiers in public health, vol. 10, 2022, pp. 893165. |
| Watson, Katie, Paul, Maureen, Yanow, Susan, Baruch, Jay. "Supporting, Not Reporting — Emergency Department Ethics in a Post-Roe Era." New England Journal of Medicine, vol. 387, no. 10, 2022, pp. 861-863. |
| Olson MB, Springs S, Baruch J. "What Are the Right Tools for Studying Arts in Health Interventions?." AMA journal of ethics, vol. 24, no. 7, 2022, pp. E617-621. |
| Springs S, Baruch J. "Artists on the Research Team: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Team Science, Research Rigor, and Creative Dialogue." Health Promotion Practice, vol. 22, no. 1_suppl, 2021, pp. 83S-90S. |
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"Springs S, Baruch J. Artists as research partners: an interdisciplinary approach to team science, research rigor and creative dialogue. Health Promotion and Practice 2021 May;22(1 _suppl): 83S-90S." 2021.
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| Kumagai AK, Baruch J. "Stories in the Time of COVID-19." Academic Medicine, 2021. |
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"Baruch J. When Sensitivity is a Liability N Engl J Med 2020;382:6949-695." 2020.
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"Baruch JM, Springs S, Poterack A, Blythe SG. “What Cy Twombly’s art can teach us about patient stories.” AMA Journal of Ethics 2020;22:E430-436." 2020.
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| Baruch J, Springs S, Poterack A, Blythe SG. "What Cy Twombly's Art Can Teach Us About Patients' Stories." AMA journal of ethics, vol. 22, no. 5, 2020, pp. E430-436. |
| Baruch J. "When Sensitivity Is a Liability." New England Journal of Medicine, vol. 382, no. 8, 2020, pp. 694-695. |
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"Baruch J. Why won’t my patient act like a jerk? Hastings Center Report. 2019; 49: 4-5." 2019.
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| Springs S, Rofeberg V, Brown S, Boudreau S, Hey SP, Baruch J. "Community-engaged Evidence Synthesis to Inform Public Health Policy and Clinical Practice: A Case Study." Medical Care, vol. 57 Suppl 10 Suppl 3, 2019, pp. S253-S258. |
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"Marr B, Mickey SH, Blyth SG, Baruch JM. The weight of pain: what does a 10 on a pain scale really mean? An innovative use of art in medical education to enhance pain management. In: Journal of Pain and Symptom Management 2019: 57(6):1182-1187." 2019.
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"Springs S, Baruch J. Evidence Synthesis Methods for Medical Humanities. In: Research Methods in Health Humanities, Craig Klugman and Erin Gentry Lamb, ed. Oxford University Press (October 2019).", 2019.
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"Springs S, V Rofeberg, S Brown, S Boudreau, S Hey, J Baruch... Community Engaged Evidence Synthesis to Inform Public Health Policy and Clinical Practice: A Case Study. Medical Care 2019:57:S253-S258." 2019.
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| Marr B, Mickey SH, Blythe SG, Baruch J. "The Weight of Pain: What Does a 10 on the Pain Scale Mean? An Innovative Use of Art in Medical Education to Enhance Pain Management." Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, vol. 57, no. 6, 2019, pp. 1182-1187. |
| Baruch, Jay, Springs, Stacey. "Opioids and pain in the emergency department: a narrative crisis." Medical Humanities, vol. 44, no. 3, 2018, pp. medhum-2017-011429. |
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"Ryus C. and Baruch J. Duty of Mind: Ethical capacity in a time of crises. Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness 2018; 12: 657-662." 2018.
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"Baruch JM. Doctors as Makers, Academic Medicine 2017;92:40-44." 2017.
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| Baruch JM. "Doctors as Makers." Academic Medicine, vol. 92, no. 1, 2017, pp. 40-44. |
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"Liou KT, Jamorabo DS, Dollase RH, Dumenco L, Schiffman FS, Baruch JM. Playing in the Gutter: A Potential Role for Creativity in Medical Education, Academic Medicine 2016;91:322-327." 2016.
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| Lloyd M, Zhang XC, Joseph S, Baruch J, Siket M, Binder W. "Peeping Painless Proptosis." Rhode Island medical journal (2013), vol. 99, no. 8, 2016, pp. 40-2. |
| Liou, Kevin T., Jamorabo, Daniel S., Dollase, Richard H., Dumenco, Luba, Schiffman, Fred J., Baruch, Jay M. "Playing in the “Gutter”." Academic Medicine, vol. 91, no. 3, 2016, pp. 322-327. |
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"Baruch JM. Benefit Paradox. Hastings Center Report 2015; 46: 3-4." 2015.
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"Baruch JM: “Reflection as Side Effect: Use of Creative Writing Exercises in Medical Education,” in Keeping Reflection Fresh: Top Educators Share Their Innovations, Pam Brett-McClean and Allan Peterkin, ed. Kent State University Press (July 2015).", 2015.
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| Zhang XC, Kobayashi L, Berger M, Reddy PM, Chheng DB, Gorham SA, Pathania S, Stern SP, Icaza Milson E, Jay GD, Baruch JM. "Objective Assessment and Thematic Categorization of Patient-audible Information in an Emergency Department." Academic Emergency Medicine, vol. 22, no. 10, 2015, pp. 1222-5. |
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"Siket MS, Baruch JM. Principles of Neurologic Ethics. In: Brown D, editor, Scientific American Emergency Medicine. Hamilton (ON). Decker Intellectual Properties: September 2015. DOI: 10.2310/7900.4000 (September 10, 2015).", 2015.
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"Zhang XC, Kobayashi L, Berger M, Reddy PM, Chheng DB, Gorham SA, Pathania S, Stern SP, Icaza Milson E, Jay GD, Baruch JM. Objective assessment and thematic categorization of patient-audible information in an emergency department. Academic Emergency Medicine 2015;10: 1222-1225." 2015.
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"Baruch JM. “In Defense of Cheaper Stethoscopes,” in, Health and Humanities Reader, Tess Jones and Delese Wear, ed. Rutgers University Press, 2014.", 2014.
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| Liou KT, George P, Baruch JM, Luks FI. "Clinical sketches: teaching medical illustration to medical students." Medical education, vol. 48, no. 5, 2014, pp. 525. |
| Baruch, Jay. "Disaster Response or Response as Disaster?." Hastings Center Report, vol. 44, no. 2, 2014, pp. 46-47. |
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"Liou KT, George P, Baruch JM, Luks FI. Teaching medical illustration to medical students. Medical Education 2014;48:522-548." 2014.
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"Baruch J, Springs S. Opioids and pain in the emergency department: a narrative crisis. Medical Humanities 2018; 44: 2013-201 (Featured on BMJ Medical Humanities website: https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-humanities/2018/09/03/opioids-and-pain-in-the-emergency-department-a-narrative-crisis/)." 2013.
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"Baruch JM. Creativity as a Medical Instrument. Journal of Medical Humanities 2013;34:459-469." 2013.
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| Baruch JM. "Creative writing as a medical instrument." Journal of Medical Humanities, vol. 34, no. 4, 2013, pp. 459-469. |
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"Auerbach K, Baruch JM: Beyond comfort zones: An experiment in medical and art education. Journal for Learning through the Arts. 2012; 8(1)." 2012.
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"Baruch JM. Dr. Douchebag: A Tale of the Emergency Department. Hastings Center Report 42:2012 p. 9-10)." 2012.
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| Baruch, Jay. "Big Incision." Annals of Internal Medicine, vol. 156, no. 11, 2012, pp. 836. |
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"Amos E, Baruch J. Anonymous Physician Blogging. AMA Journal of Ethics. 2011; 13(7):440-447. http://virtualmentor.ama-assn.org/2011/07/ccas3-1107.html Accessed July 7, 2011." 2011.
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"Baruch JM. “The Deleterious Effects of Insensitivity: Range of Motion” in, The Picture of Health: Medical Ethics and the Movies. Oxford University Press, 2011.", 2011.
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"Baruch JM. Gaps in the Safety Net Metaphor. AMA Journal of Ethics 12; 2010: 487-491." 2010.
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| Baruch J. "Gaps in the safety net metaphor." The virtual mentor : VM, vol. 12, no. 6, 2010, pp. 487-91. |
| Jay Baruch, None. "Hug or Ugh?." Hastings Center Report, vol. 40, no. 2, 2010, pp. 7-8. |
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"Baruch, JM. “Allowing prisoners to donate organs is unethical” in Organ Donation: Opposing Viewpoints, Laura K. Egendorf, ed. Greenwood Press, 2009.", 2009.
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"Baruch JM. “Speaking the Unspeakable,” Return to House of God: Medical Resident Education 1978-2008, Martin Kohn and Carol Donley, ed. Kent State University Press, 2008.", 2008.
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| Iserson KV, Heine CE, Larkin GL, Moskop JC, Baruch J, Aswegan AL. "Fight or flight: the ethics of emergency physician disaster response." Annals of Emergency Medicine, vol. 51, no. 4, 2008, pp. 345-53. |
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"Iserson KV, Heine C, Moskop, Larkin GL Baruch JM, Aswegan A,. Fight or flight: Ethics of emergency physician disaster response. Annals of Emergency Medicine 51; 2008: 345-353." 2008.
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| Baruch JM. "Why must pain patients be found deserving of treatment?." The virtual mentor : VM, vol. 10, no. 1, 2008, pp. 5-12. |
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"Baruch JM. What is the Ocean State Ethics Network? Medicine Health/RI 88;2005:123-126." 2005.
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| Baruch J. "Prisoners and organ donation." Medicine and health, Rhode Island, vol. 88, no. 12, 2005, pp. 437-8. |
| Baruch JM. "What is the Ocean State Ethics Network?." Medicine and health, Rhode Island, vol. 88, no. 4, 2005, pp. 123-6. |
| Crausman RS, Baruch JM. "Abandonment in the physician-patient relationship." Medicine and health, Rhode Island, vol. 87, no. 5, 2004, pp. 154-6. |
| Baruch JM. "Informed consent and advance directives." Journal of the American Podiatric Medical Association, vol. 94, no. 2, 2004, pp. 198-205. |
$2500 Mentorship Grant from Brown Medical School, 2003 “Use of narrative and literature to better teach medical ethics.” Mentor: Dr. Jeff Borkan
$2000 mini-grant, Moskwa Fund, from Rhode Island Foundation for the Ocean State Ethics Network. 2004 Principal Investigator
$4400 Gold Foundation Ethics Night 2008 Principal Investigator
$5000 Creative Arts Council grant--Creative Physician Series. 2010-2011 Principal Investigator
$36,201 University Emergency Medicine Foundation MCADA grant “Building a Medical Humanities Program at Brown University.” Principal Investigator
$5000 Creative Arts Council grant--Creative Physician Series, 2011-2012 (focus visual arts) Principal Investigator
Bray Funds-$50,000 seed gift for Program in Clinical Arts and Humanities, Alpert Medical School 2012. Funds went towards:
3 Bray Humanities student fellows -- students received $1000 humanities
Bray visiting scholar: Deb Salem Smith who taught BIOL: 3715 (Playwriting and Medicine) Trinity Rep/Alpert Med course
Bray scholar lecture: Liz Tobin Tyler, “Interpreting Narratives of Health and Justice”
$3000 Creative Arts Council grant, Creative Medicine Series 2012-2013 Principal investigator
$3000 Creatives Arts Council grant, Design+Health.2014 Principal investigator
$3000 ACEP section grant “Humanities at the Bedside.” Develop a medical humanities curriculum for emergency physicians. Humanities section. Principal Investigator https://www.acep.org/education/humanities-at-the-bedside/#sm.0004ynp4zhrkfqp103b2o9bat0j4s
$10,000 Rhode Island State Council for the Arts pilot grant. “Use of museums to address bias of patients with substance use disorder in the ER.” Principal Investigator
$2500 Brown Emergency Medicine Innovation Grant “Complex spaces: the practice of uncertainty in emergency care.” Principal Investigator
Selected invited talks:
1/30/13 AMSA Writer’s Institute. Creative writing and medical practice
1/16/2013 Maurice B. Siegel Lecturer in Humanism and Medicine, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center , “First drafts and open spaces: why healthcare providers should think like creative writers.”
4/18/2013 Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, “Story pearls and pitfalls every physician should know.”
4/19/2013 Northeastern Ohio Medical University, Guest writer, William Carlos Williams Poetry Awards and Poetry Reading.
4/19/2013 Hiram College, Hiram, OH. “Creativity in the Clinic.”
4/25/2013 Millennial Medicine: Knowledge Design for an Age of Digital Disruption. Houston, TX. “Story-Centric: Curiosity, a glass of water, and other creative tools for future doctors.”
10/18/2013 Plenary speaker, Association for the Behavioral Sciences in Medical Education national meeting. “Story-Centric: Why healthcare providers must think like creative writers.”
4/24/2014 Why physicians should think like creative writers. Assante Regional Medical Center, Medford, Oregon.
10/22/2014 Visiting Professorship, Humanities and Medical Ethics, University of Rochester Medical School
3/11/2015 Distinguished Visiter, Creighton University Medical School, “Narrative Risks in Clinical Medicine: Why Healthcare Providers Should Think Like Creative Writers.” Omaha, NE.
10/1/2015 Duffy Lecture in Medical Humanities, Yale Medical School
3/10/2016 Meeting the surreal in medicine through fiction, College of Physicians, Philadelphia PA.
4/21/2016 “Narrative Risks in Clinical Medicine,” Montgomery Lecture, Feinberg School of Medicine, Medical Humanities Masters Program. Chicago, IL.
6/8/2016 Panel presentation and teaching demonstration with RISD Museum colleague at Art of Examination: Art Museum and Medical School Partnerships, Museum of Modern Art, NY, NY.
9/18/ 2016 Stanford MedX Panel, main stage "Design thinking inside out,”
2/1/2017 “Doctors as Makers,” Moore Lecture, Center for Biomedical Ethics and Humanities, visiting lectureship, University of Virginia Medical Center, Charlottesville, VA.
2/22/2017 “The power of health and the arts” panel presentation part of the ArtScience series at Le Laboratorie, Cambridge MA with Rachel Balaban and Julie Strandbirg (ASaP)
3/10/2017 “Not knowing in medicine, “ Featured speaker, dotMed medicine conference, Dublin, Ireland
3/22-24/2017 Cowen Memorial Lectureship in Humanities, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT. (Four lectures)
9/15/2017 “Why doctors must be creative: notes from a narrative disaster zone. Keynote address, Western Michigan University Humanities meeting
10/27/2017 “Critical Stories in critical spaces: decoding not-knowing” Keynote address, Mayo Clinic national medical humanities meeting, Rochester MN
1/24/2018 “Narrative risks at the bedside.” NYU/Winthrop Hospital Department of Internal Medicine/Palliative Care Grand Rounds, Garden City NY
4/27/2018 Guest writer, Northern Ohio Medical University, William Carlos Williams writing Award presentation & readings
5/3/2018 Welcoming Crises: Storying into Medical Ethics, McGovern Center for Humanities and Ethics, University of Texas at Houston Medical School.
9/18/2018 Baruch J, Brown S, Boudreau S, Springs S. (October 9, 2018) Community-Engaged Approaches to Evidence Synthesis: A Model for Interdisciplinary Collaboration. 31st Annual Healthcare Facilities Symposium & Expo/National Organization for Arts and Health Meeting (Plenary Session) Austin, Texas
10/17/2018 "Can more not-knowing make us better physicians?” FIX18 FEMinEM idea exchange, NY, NY
10/31/2018 Invited to present our arts and health work at “Creating Healthy Communities: Arts + Public Health in America”Athens, Georgia.
11/12/2018 Medical College of Wisconsin School of Medicine Annual Humanities Lectureship “Why we need more creativity in medicine.” Milwaukee, WI. (Invited to appear on “Lake Effect,” Milwaukee NPR radio station WUWM. They wrote about our discussion, “A Doctors’s Take on Public Discourse in the Information Age.” http://www.wuwm.com/post/doctors-take-public-discourse-information-age
12/3/2018 "How the Patient Narrative Informs Treatment Decisions” American Society of Hematology annual meeting, San Diego, CA
3/22/2019 “Can we write a better story for ourselves?” Plenary 6th National Nursing Ethics Conference, Los Angeles CA.
3/22/2019, “Working with Uncertainty” Workshop, 6th National Nursing Ethics Conference, Los Angeles CA.
9/25/2019 Narrative Risks at the Bedside: Story as a Clinical Skill, Johns Hopkins Department of Emergency Medicine, Inaugural Health Humanities Speaker, Baltimore Maryland
10/27/2019 American Society for Bioethics and Humanities national meeting, Pittsburgh, PA. “Interdisciplinary dialogues: voice, trust, and advocacy.”
11/13/19 “Narrative Risks at the Bedside: Story as a Clinical Skill” Grand Rounds, University of Michigan EM residency, Ann Arbor, MI
11/20/19 “Messy Narratives and In-Between Spaces” 2nd Annual Volck Humanities Lectureship, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, Cincinnati OH.
3/4/2020 “The best medicine doesn’t work on the wrong story,” Nancy J. Solana Lectureship in Medical Humanities at UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas to entire 4th year medical school class and selected faculty.
3/27/2020 Plenary panel, Keywords in Health Humanities: Creativity. Health Humanities Consortium annual meeting, Nashville TN (cancelled due to Covid-19)
5/12/2020 “Writing about doctoring in Covid: thinking about caring and risk” Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, 2nd year class. (via Zoom)
6/18/2020 “Medicine stories, stories in medicine” Zoom talk, students Neiswanger Institute for Bioethics at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine Masters of Bioethics and Health Policy
10/16/2020 “Beyond Comfort Zones: Creativity as a clinical skill in academic medicine.” Plenary presentation, University of Michigan Medical School Medical Education Faculty Symposium. (Zoom)
10/16/2020 Panel discussion “Innovators stories in creativity” University of Michigan Medical School Medical Education Faculty Symposium. (Zoom)
10/17/2020 American Society for Bioethics and Humanities annual meeting. Plenary panel. "Getting messy with stories” in "What about the 'H' in ASBH? Exploring the Intersections Across Bioethics and Humanities" (Zoom)
January 14, 2021 “Forging a creative career path in medical humanities” Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine Medical Humanities and Bioethics Masters Program (Zoom)
March 22, 2021 “Writing, Creativity and Uncertainty in Medicine” invited to give joint talk to University of Nebraska Omaha undergraduate and graduate students in class “Writing, Sickness and Health” and Brandeis University undergraduate class on Medical Uncertainty
March 26, 2021. Health Humanities Consortium International Conference, “Asking Critical Questions of Front Line Providers During a Pandemic: using digital humanities as a platform for tough discussions,” Dr. Mike Barthman and Dr. Jay Baruch
5/26/2021 Creativity and Narrative in Clinical Practice, Weill Cornell Medical College and Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons (VP&S) Emergency Medicine residency medical humanities track students and faculty
7/14/2021 Brown University Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning, invited to talk about designing my EdX MOOC as part of a roundtable on digital teaching innovations
| Year | Degree | Institution |
|---|---|---|
| 1990 | MD | State University of New York at Stony Brook |
| 1985 | BA | Union College |
Presently Director, Medical Humanities and Bioethics Scholarly Concentration, Alpert Medical School. I was recently voted to serve on the Steering Committee for the Health Humanities Consoritium, the leading organization of Health Humanities scholars and educators in the US.
Past positions and honors include:
Director-at-Large, American Society for Bioethics and Humanities
Chair of the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) medical humanities section, where I spearheaded the creation of the first medical humanities curriculum for the specialty
Leadership team for Arts and Health Advisory Group for the RI Department of Health.
Brown Department of Emergency Medicine, Innovations in Education Award (2018)
Arnold P. Gold Foundation Humanism in Medicine Award from the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (2016)
Faculty Fellow at the Cogut Center for the Humanities at Brown University.
My teaching has roots in interdisciplinary and inter-institutional collaborations, bringing medical students into conversations with law students, design students and theater students. I founded the Creative Medicine Series, a lectureship co-sponsored by the Cogut Institute for the Humanities and Brown Emergency Medicine. I've created curricula with RISD museum educators to highlight the creative dimensions of medical decisionmaking.
Along with Brown University media team, I developed, "Beyond Medical Histories: Gaining Insight From Patients Stories," an online edX course based on my work that was viewed by learners from over 90 countries.
Besides helping to create, mentor, and teach many medical school electives in narrative, arts, and design, I also taught undergraduates at both Brown University and RISD. These courses include:
PLME500 Creative Dimensions of Medical Decision-making Spring, 2015( Brown University undergraduate seminar at RISD Museum. I created and co-taught the course with Hollis Mickey, RISD Museum educator
HMAN 2970E Pain, Medicine and Society Fall, 2011
(offered through Cogut Center from the Humanities at Brown University, co-created an co-taught with Prof. Michael Steinberg and Dr. Christine Montross)
HMAN 1970V: Pragmatic Medical Humanities Spring, 2011
(offered through the Cogut Center for the Humanities at Brown University)
RISD ENGL E654 / BROWN BIOL 3710M(RISD0730Y) No Innocent Eye: Knowledge and Interpretation in Art and Medicine Spring, 2010
(Collaboration with Rhode Island School of Design. Co-created and co-taught with RISD writing colleague Kelli Auerbach)
