Videos, images of works of art, photos and narration contribute to telling the historical and cultural dimensions that permeate medicine

The project “Medicina e Arte (Medicine and Art): the diagnoses that works of art reveal” includes the production and dissemination of videos of up to five minutes, with a didactic analysis of works of art that address medical topics from various specialties. The iconographic details, historical data and explanations of the selected works are based on bibliographic references, which are cited at the end of each video. Today, June 1st, 2023, an exclusive page about the Medicine and Art project is launched on the website of the Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo (FMUSP), where all videos will be available for consultation.

The creation of the project and the narration of the videos are done by Dr. Alexandre Faisal Cury, researcher at FMUSP Preventive Medicine Department. The first videos cover paintings by Frida Kahlo, Luke Fildes, Gerard Dou, Pablo Picasso, Pieter Bruegel and Vincent van Gogh.

According to Dr. Alexandre Faisal, throughout his training as a doctor, initially at Faculdade de Ciências Médicas da Santa Casa de São Paulo, and later at FMUSP, it seemed evident to him that art and the social sciences were fundamental in the training of all health professionals . For him, “the set of disciplines that make up the so-called medical humanities, such as literature, philosophy, ethics, history, psychology, etc., combined with knowledge of the arts, offer, at the same time, a privileged view of the human condition, a historical perspective on health and the role of health professionals in different social contexts”. The Doctor. Faisal also added: “the arts allow the development of a set of skills such as observation, analysis, empathy and self-reflection that are essential for those who want humanized health care”.

From this context, the Medicina e Arte project emerged. In this way, visits to museums and libraries became a field of research, whose objective was to identify works of art that had addressed medical themes: the conception of illness, diagnoses, treatments, among others. “And this research, in addition to the pleasure and aesthetic education, allowed me a much broader perception of the disease-health process, by taking into account the historical and cultural dimensions and the genius vision of the authors of works on illness”, declared the researcher Dr. Alexander Faisal.

The project, a pioneer in the country, has the potential to integrate knowledge of the arts into the academic curriculum, offer the FMUSP community didactic material that addresses the interaction of medicine and health care, and provide the population with an uncomplicated view of works of art that portray themes “The videos shown in the Medicina e Arte project aim to be a source of pleasure and inspiration for all those, health professionals or not, who understand that there is no such thing as dehumanized medicine”, says Dr. Alexander Faisal.

Access: https://www.fm.usp.br/fmusp/portal/medicina-e-arte