CONTEXT The teaching of medical history is commonly included in the program of medical humanities courses available for undergraduate medical students. The role of medical humanities in medical education responds to the need to connect medical practice with the human dimension of doctor-patient relationship and extra-scientifc values involved in clinical decision-making processes. Medical humanities contribute to improve a fuller understanding of patients, cultures and communities, as well as the social dimension of scientific enterprise to cure illnesses and develop new therapies. Nowadays medical humanites courses at medical schools are frequently fragmented, due to the participation in the teaching activities of lecturers with different expertise, each one working on a separated and independent module. In this circumstances the teaching of medical history has been consistently affected by the lack of expertise of lecturers and the reduction of historians of medicine in medical schools. OBJECTIVE Our project represents an alternative model of medical history provision and an attempt to overcome the gap between clinical practice and historical perspective of medical humanities, through the representation of the historical scenarios and the integration of historical evidences in specific educational contents. ALCMAEON will collect audio-visual material to digitalize the available collections of medical museum in Italy, Spain, Greece, Netherland and Romania, in the attempt to promote the different traditions characterizing European medical history and bring the medical museums in the classroom. Our digital collection will be open access and supported through and illustrating educational material to promote the cultural patrimony of university museums among the medical students of European Union and will contribute to disseminate a cross-cultural model of medicine to face the challenges of future health care services. RESULTS During the project the following results are expected: - Improve the quality of the teaching of medical history in the course medical humanities at medical schools, through the development of an innovative module focused on the integration of educational contents with the others available in the same course. - Promote the object-based learning approach among medical students and facilitate the improvement of knowledge, communication, team working, practical and observational skills and inspiration of medical students. - Promote the university collection of objects available in medical museum and recover their pedagogical role assigned them in the teaching in the XIXth century and lost at the end of XXth century. At the same way integrate the pedagogical power of museum into the academic discipline and improve the learning process of students. - Reorient the study of medical history through a new methodological approach such as object-based learning, and at the same time restitute the relevance of medical history in medical education. In order to allow these expected results the project designed 4 intellectual outputs Intellectual output 1: Training package in medical history for medical humanities lecturers Trough the intellectual output 1 the project will achieve the contents of the new module designed to innovate the teaching of medical history in medical schools. The innovation process is assured through a mapping process and stakeholders consultation involving lecturers and medical students aimed to identfy needs, barriers and facilitators and define the learner competences achieved through the module of medical history. Intellectual output 2: Design the collection for the digital medical museum Object based learning involve the presence of object in the learning process through sense experience. The IO2 will design a website to locate a digital collection of objects assembled to be integrated with the educational material developed in the IO1. Intellectual output 3: Develop 4 videos as introduction to medical history The videos will introduce the students to the 4 thematic areas identified in the educational material designed in the IO1: clinical practice (evidence based medicine), medical ethics (health expectations and experiences in term of values and ethical principle changed through the time), medical social sciences (lifestyle, environment, global health), communication skills (doctor-patient relationship). Intellectual output 4: Publication about the integration of medical history in the medical humanities As a results of IO1, IO2, IO3 a pubblication will introduce the object-based learning in medical history and will show the potential impact of the training package and digital platform on medical students competences. The paper will be an introduction to how apply the educational contents and use the digital platform in the classroom and for research activities performed at home work.
CONTEXT The Alcmaeon project aims at standing out the role of medical humanities in medical education responds to the need of connecting medical practice with the human dimension of the doctor-patient relationship and extra-scientific values involved in clinical decision-making processes. Medical humanities contribute to improving a fuller understanding of patients, cultures and communities, as well as the social dimension of the scientific enterprise to cure illnesses and develop new therapies. OBJECTIVES The Alcmaeon project aims to innovate the teaching of medical history with a new educational approach, object-based learning, and to work in better integration of historical, ethical and psychosocial components of medical humanities. To achieve its aim the Alcmaeon project produced audio-visual material to digitalize the available collections of a medical museum in Italy, Spain, Greece, the United Kingdom and Romania, in the attempt to promote the different traditions characterizing European medical history and bring the medical museums in the classroom. TARGET GROUPS Doctors and universities lectures in humanities in medicine Almost 100 lecturers were involved in the creation of the 3 Intellectual Outputs Undergraduate Medical Students More than 200 medical students were involved in the project to test the material produced IMPACT The Alcmaeon project had a direct impact on lectures of medical courses and undergraduate medical students who through participation as project full partners of 5 Higher Education Institutions, were directly involved in the creation and testing of the intellectual outputs. The project impacted lecturers’ needs providing them with: - Educational Material easily integrable into the other modules of medical humanities programs, such as medical ethics, medical anthropology or communications skills - Mapping specific pathways to represent the environment of medical practice and support lecturer to promote the students’ active participation The project impacted medical students’ needs providing them with: - An application of a pedagogical model recovering the role of experience in the learning process. Experiential learning is the ideal teaching methodology to take advantage of the pedagogical power of museum collections - An active immersion in the historical environment represented by our digital museum will stimulate the active students' participation in the classroom against a passive listening of what lecturers are explaining - Object-based learning offers the opportunity to observe directly the historical environment and stimulate a reflection about the historical sources RESULTS To guarantee the long-term impact on the aforementioned categories, the Alcmaeon project developed three Intellectual Outputs that medical students, lecturers and end-users, in general, can access and use for free from the project portal. The three Intellectual Outputs are: IO1 – Training package in medical history for medical humanities lecturers The Output is divided into two main activities carried out by project partners: 1) Mapping of Medical Humanities (https://alcmaeon.pixel-online.org/TP_Map.php) This material presents the importance of medical history teaching, a discipline that contributes to improving a fuller understanding of patients, cultures and communities, and the scientific enterprise's social dimension to cure illnesses and develop new therapies. 2) Educational Material (https://alcmaeon.pixel-online.org/TP_Material.php) The material consists of a set of educational material organised in 12 units to be used by medical humanities lecturers in their courses. IO2 – Digital Museum (https://alcmaeon.pixel-online.org/DM_page.php) The output consists of a set of digital contents placed in an open-access platform addressed to undergraduate medical students to improve their information concerning the historical context explored during the history of medicine courses. IO3 – Video Library (https://alcmaeon.pixel-online.org/VL_page.php) The output consists of a database of videos showing the testimonials of doctors or medical lectures experts in the history of medicine, which will support the training package and consolidate the link of the history of medicine with the medical profession.