Mass. doctors get lesson in art to improve patient care

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An innovative program in Boston shows medicine is an art as much as a science. It teaches physicians in training to use their eyes and ears to connect with patients and enhance the practice of medicine, reports CBS medical contributor Dr. Tara Narula.

At the Brigham and Women's Hospital, doctors, nurses and Harvard medical students are helping reshape medical education. By day, members of the integrated teaching unit, or ITU, focus on treating patients. But at night, they fix their sights on works of art.

At the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, art becomes a catalyst to strengthen clinical and interpersonal skills, softening the hard science of medicine with creative expression.

"To me, this represented the struggle of being a third-year med student where I'm on a different rotation every couple of months and I feel like my story is being rewritten over and over and everything I learned, some of it I forget," one student said.

Dr. Joel Katz designed the art curriculum at Brigham and Women's, which has become a model for other hospitals.

"When you survey patients, very few of them complain about the knowledge base of their doctor or the fact that their doctor doesn't know anatomy," Katz said. "What they complain about is that their doctor is inefficient or ineffective in communicating. That's what patients feel and that's what we're trying to address with these programs."

Katz chose the art museum because it "allows everybody to focus on an external object in a way that I would say takes the personal aspects out and lets them solve problems together."

Activities are carefully designed to enhance team-building, and to break down the hospital hierarchy, junior staff members are paired with more senior colleagues. Observing and describing art is used to promote problem solving, communication, thinking outside the box and appreciating other perspectives.

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