Thanks to a longstanding relationship with the John P. Murphy Foundation, the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University will receive a $1 million gift from the foundation, payable over six years, to establish the John P. Murphy Fellowship in Medical Humanities at CCLCM. This gift will allow CCLCM to offer three two-year fellowships over six years to help refine the medical humanities curriculum. The fellows will also undertake research projects to validate and improve our medical humanities model, and develop and expand partnerships with the community and local organizations that are focused on health, equity and wellness.
The Murphy Fellowship will be led by Bud Isaacson, MD, Professor of Medicine and Executive Dean of CCLCM; Eric Kodish, MD, Professor of Pediatrics and Director of the Art and Practice of Medicine; and Katherine Burke, MFA, Director of the Medical Humanities program. The leadership team will be guided by an advisory committee that will include faculty, students and community members.
“This tremendous gift from the Murphy Foundation will help elevate the importance of medical humanities within the medical school curriculum. In my view, an education in the medical humanities is essential to learning the practice of medicine and what it means to be a healer. It allows students to better understand the human experience, which ultimately leads to more compassionate and empathic patient care,” says Dr. Isaacson.
Medical humanities is woven throughout the five-year curriculum at CCLCM. Students engage in both large and small group sessions to work on creative projects such as reflective essays and mask making. Through our partnership with the Cleveland Museum of Art, students delve into topics of anatomy, death, race, gender and empathy. We collaborate with John Carroll University and Case Western Reserve University to explore literature, history and poetry. Importantly, students have the opportunity to connect with the neighborhoods surrounding Cleveland Clinic in creative and arts-based projects, building relationships between CCLCM students and Clevelanders that foster empathy and well-being.
Expanding the boundaries of medical humanities
The Medical Humanities program at CCLCM was originally envisioned by the former Executive Dean of CCLCM, James B. Young, MD, Professor of Medicine and Executive Director of Academic Affairs.
“William Osler, an iconic clinician and educator a hundred years ago, said the term equanimity was the watchword for healthcare providers and patients,” says Dr. Young. “The spirit of ‘aequanimitas,’ spelled the ancient way, buoys critical empathetic relationships in our profession. It requires understanding medical humanities, which is an evolving concept drawing multiple creative disciplines — literature, art, creative writing, drama, film, music, philosophy, history, et cetera — to inform us while we pursue healthcare and population health. It is imperative that to better train healthcare providers, we must implant the humanities writ large into our education programs, and the Murphy Foundation has been a critical factor in allowing us to do just that.”
The John P. Murphy Foundation was established 60 years ago by John P. Murphy and his wife, Gladys, to help support “charitable, educational, scientific, literary and religious purposes” throughout Greater Cleveland. Within the past five years, according to the foundation, the majority of grants were awarded to institutions and organizations that support arts, culture and education. One of the most important criterion for considering grant requests is how the initiative will benefit the community.
The Murphy Foundation has been a philanthropic partner of Cleveland Clinic since 1978. The foundation’s support for a number of programs and initiatives has advanced patient care and strengthened the enterprise’s leadership in medicine, research and education.
“In 1989, the Murphy Foundation contributed generously to the campaign to build the John Sherwin Research Building, which helped Cleveland Clinic greatly expand both our research and educational capacity,” says Theresa (Terry) M. Holthaus, Vice Chairman of the Cleveland Clinic Philanthropy Institute, who has worked closely with the foundation and its current Executive Vice President, Richard J. Clark.
The foundation stepped forward again in 1996 to help support the Securing the 21st Century campaign and, in particular, the Taussig Cancer Center. In the 2000s, the foundation provided support for the Heart, Vascular & Thoracic Institute and the campaign to build the Lerner School for Autism.
In 2010, the foundation began supporting the medical humanities at CCLCM through close collaboration with Drs. Young and Isaacson, and Martin Kohn, PhD, Associate Professor Emeritus of Medicine and former Director of the Medical Humanities program. Both Drs. Young and Kohn plan to stay involved with the new program.
“The foundation’s initial gift provided support for programmatic infrastructure upon which future expansions in medical humanities were built,” says Terry. “Several years later, the foundation awarded another grant to advance medical education, this time to help build the Health Education Campus.”
Around the same time, the foundation awarded CCLCM a grant for curricular development and, importantly, supported a national medical humanities symposium, organized by Ms. Burke and Dr. Kohn, held in Cleveland in 2016.
Since then, the relationship between the foundation and CCLCM has grown even stronger.
“We’ve built an exceptional working relationship with the Murphy Foundation, and our collaborations have produced results of which both organizations can be proud,” says Dr. Kohn, whose vision for the Medical Humanities program has driven much of its success. “I’m delighted that the foundation showed interest in funding medical humanities research. Research, especially arts-based research, and its potential for expanding the boundaries of what medical humanities encompasses have been part of where we hoped our efforts would land us.”
“The Medical Humanities curriculum at the Lerner College encompasses two of our foundation’s major areas of interest — the arts and higher education. And our commitment to the John P. Murphy Fellowship in Medical Humanities recognizes the importance of that curriculum in the training of young physicians. It’s the next step in a long and rewarding partnership with Cleveland Clinic,” says Nancy W. McCann, President of the John P. Murphy Foundation.
Advancing medical humanities on three fronts
This latest grant is designed to attract outstanding fellows who will advance three key initiatives:
On the research front, fellows will look into the longstanding Devising Healthy Communities initiative, which involves students working on art projects side by side with community members and community-based artists, and explore issues around professional identity development, mutual learning, and commonalities and connections with community members.
“We’re interested in knowing what kinds of experiences the students have with community members when they are in a position of creative mutuality versus a position of power. How are they connecting? What are they learning from one another? What common ground are they discovering?” says Dr. Kohn.
Fellows will also focus on the growing field of work at the intersection of arts, public health and community development, and where CCLCM can make the most impact. For example, according to the County Health Rankings model developed by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, clinical care, although vital, contributes just 20% to a person’s overall health outcomes. Some other factors play a larger role.
“Our research will help clinicians understand what their contribution is to health outcomes and in which ways clinical care converges with other health factors, including health behaviors, social and economic factors, and physical environment,” Dr. Kohn says.
The second initiative, community partnerships and program development, will help ensure that CCLCM students and faculty continue relationship-building with their Health Education Campus neighbors. “Building strong relationships between us and our neighbors will help break down negative social determinants of health and improve health and well-being,” says Ms. Burke.
The third initiative, the annual medical humanities symposium, will give medical humanities professionals at CCLCM and around the country the opportunity to showcase work and disseminate best practices to a wider audience. Fellows will be instrumental in leading this annual event.
Attracting a diverse talent pool
Fellowship candidates must have a master’s degree in an arts or humanities field, or they may hold PhDs in arts, humanities or ethics, or be practicing physicians or other medical professionals. They must commit to a two-year fellowship program and complete research in the field.
“Medical humanities is a big tent, so to speak,” says Ms. Burke, “so we’re interested in candidates with a background in social sciences, history, philosophy, literature, history or the arts, or someone specifically interested in research or medical education. We’re hoping that each fellow will be engaged in a different area of the health humanities.”
The leadership team is hopeful to have the first fellow identified by late summer or early fall.
Through this generous grant, CCLCM will not only further the appreciation of the medical humanities as a necessary scholarly endeavor, but will also position CCLCM as leader in the field.
“We’re deeply grateful to the Murphy Foundation for putting their trust in us,” Ms. Burke says. “We can’t wait to get started.”
