title: The medical humanities - a brief introduction.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The medical humanities is a broad area of study and practice encompassing all nontechnical or 'human' aspects of medicine.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This article introduces a series in the medical humanities in Australian Family Physician.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The medical humanities serve three main goals: the study of the human aspects of medicine from within traditional arts disciplines of history, philosophy, sociology and literature; the intersection of medicine and the creative arts; and the training of more insightful and compassionate doctors. This article briefly explores these three goals and discusses their value for the medical community.
authors.affiliation: Medical Humanities Program, Centre for Values, Ethics and Law in Medicine, University of Sydney, New South Wales. med.usyd.edu.au
authors.forename: Claire
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hooker
mesh_terms: D001315:Australia; D004501:Education, Medical; D006809:Humanities / Q000193:education*; D006801:Humans; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations