UAMS’ Medical Humanities to Celebrate 25th Anniversary
| LITTLE ROCK – Addressing the human dimension of health care delivery, the Division of Medical Humanities at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) is celebrating its 25th anniversary with a series of educational programs and entertainment through next spring. Established in 1983 with a $288,000 grant to the UAMS College of Medicine from the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, the Division of Medical Humanities has gone on to achieve national and international recognition for its many books and scholarly articles, and for its innovative efforts in educating health professionals and the public about social and ethical issues in medicine. “We think we are making our students better doctors by helping them understand the ethical dilemmas they will face, the historical context of their profession, and the experience of illness as portrayed in literature and the arts,” said Chris Hackler, Ph.D., director of the division since its inception. A required course in medical ethics is taught by a team of doctors and ethics specialists from the community, headed by associate division director D. Micah Hester, Ph.D. It addresses issues such as confidentiality, truth telling, informed consent, refusal of life-sustaining treatment, living wills, and the ethics of cost containment and allocation of scarce resources. They also offer a 24-hour consultation service in the UAMS Medical Center for physicians, nurses and other health care workers, as well as for patients and their families who have questions about these and other ethics issues. The division led the creation of ethics committees at UAMS, the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System and at Arkansas Children’s Hospital and has worked with several hospitals statewide to establish ethics committees. It is working to arrange a statewide network for continued education and support. “The Division of Medical Humanities at UAMS was teaching about these issues before most institutions nationally saw the need,” Hackler said, “including courses in law, literature and history of medicine taught by prominent scholars in those fields. In celebrating our 25th anniversary we hope to make Arkansans aware of our pioneering activities and encourage them to take advantage of our resources.” The celebration opened with a sold-out concert Oct. 7 at the William J. Clinton Presidential Center Great Hall, featuring award-winning pianist and master storyteller Richard Glazier, who performed arrangements of George Gershwin as he discussed his life and the brain tumor from which he died at the height of his career. For more information about the programs, call (501) 661-7970. The schedule of 25th anniversary celebration festivities includes: UAMS is the state’s only comprehensive academic health center, with five colleges, a graduate school, a medical center, six centers of excellence and a statewide network of regional centers. UAMS has 2,652 students and 733 medical residents. Its centers of excellence include the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, the Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Institute, the Myeloma Institute for Research and Therapy, the Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute, the Psychiatric Research Institute and the Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging. It is one of the state’s largest public employers with about 10,000 employees, including nearly 1,150 physicians who provide medical care to patients at UAMS, Arkansas Children’s Hospital, the VA Medical Center and UAMS’ Area Health Education Centers throughout the state. UAMS and its affiliates have an economic impact in Arkansas of $5 billion a year. Visit www.uams.edu.