Science is not enough; why we need arts as well
The continuing challenges posed by the coronavirus go well beyond the answers that science can provide, which is where the arts and humanities come into play.
As the new year begins, science occupies center stage — as it did through most of 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic has seen to that. Research that once would have been confined to labs is now front-page news; the public hangs on the latest results of clinical trials and compares the efficacy rates of vaccines.
The hope that many of us have begun to feel today — as extraordinarily effective and safe vaccines reach the front lines of this fight — underscores the importance of science. For 2021 to be brighter than last year, science and scientists must continue to play their indispensable roles, and must be taken seriously.
Yet science in itself is insufficient to the task ahead. The continuing challenges posed by the virus go well beyond the answers that science can possibly provide. For example, research can identify the huge disparities in COVID’S impact among people of different races, ethnicities and types of work, but it cannot eliminate them. Neither is there a scientific quick-fix for vaccine hesitancy — the reluctance of many Americans to take any vaccine, however effective.
In addressing these issues, among others, society needs the work of scientists and health professionals to be informed by, and infused with, a wide range of human insight, experience and values. We need not just science but also the arts and humanities — and a union between them.
As no less a mathematician than Albert Einstein put it: “All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree” because all serve the same larger purpose — to uplift the lives of human beings.
This is not a new idea. The principle that Einstein expressed has its roots in the Renaissance and the Enlightenment; and medicine, in particular, has always been both an art and a science.
Research supports arts education
In historical terms, our present era of hyper-specialization in medicine and far beyond is an anomaly. So is the de-emphasis we’re seeing on liberal arts programs in favor of science, engineering and other disciplines that promise a greater bang for the buck, vocationally speaking.
But today, perhaps more than ever, health professionals must be able to draw from many disciplines. Physicians and other caregivers operate in a complex, rapidly changing environment. To practice effectively — to best serve our patients — our knowledge of scientific advances needs to be reinforced by qualities that are emphasized in the arts and humanities: imagination and curiosity, communication and empathy, critical thinking and social advocacy.
That is true, for example, when it comes to decisions concerning the end of life. This was brought home to one of us, painfully so, years ago in a hospital in Iowa. An electroencephalogram determined that a patient no longer showed any brain activity. Yet in the end, the difficult decision to remove her life support drew less on science than on medical ethics, communication with family members and human compassion.
Studying the arts and humanities helps develop important habits of mind; it heightens our understanding of one another, of the human condition. It is not surprising, therefore, that several studies have found that medical students, doctors and nurses who participate in arts-based training — closely studying artwork at museums, for example — see improvements in their clinical observation and communication skills.
Humanities help build empathy
One multi-institution study showed that medical students who have had greater exposure to the humanities receive much higher scores in empathy, tolerance for ambiguity and emotional intelligence — all qualities that any of us would want in a physician.
In 2018, the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine issued a report, “Branches from the Same Tree,” an echo of Einstein.
The group recommended that institutions of higher learning develop curricula that integrate the arts and sciences.
Toward that end, medical schools and teaching hospitals are placing greater emphasis on the arts and humanities in educating the next generation of physicians.
And last month, our organization issued guidance to further this trend. Schools could take a variety of approaches: they could, say, incorporate the humanities to teach medical students about the impact that America’s history of systemic racism has on today’s health inequities, or could use the arts to train clinicians to communicate the value of science to the communities they serve.
Of course, health professionals are not the only group that would gain from greater engagement with the arts and humanities. Surely we would all benefit from learning new ways of thinking, new ways of understanding our cultural differences and our common humanity.
As long as the pandemic cuts a deadly path across our world, science will of course be paramount.
But none of our institutions — and that includes government at all levels — should see the arts and humanities as frills. They are essential to our welfare — even our survival.
The arts can not only help heal our bodies during these difficult times, they can help heal our souls.
David J. Skorton, M.D., is president and CEO of the Association of American Medical Colleges and a member of the USA TODAY Board of Contributors. Lisa Howley, Ph.d.,is senior director of Strategic Initiatives and Partnerships at the AAMC.