Revista nº 807

· 135 · CARTAS AL EDITOR Actualidad Médica A C T U A L I D A D M É D I C A www.actualidadmedica.es ©2019.Actual.Med.Todoslosderechosreservados The mandatory humanity of the medical career D’Ottavio-Cattani, Alberto Enrique 1 1 Facultad de Ciencias Médicas y Consejo de Investigaciones. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Rosario, Argentina Enviado: 08-08-2019 Revisado: 12-08-2019 Aceptado: 27-08-2019 La humanidad obligatoria de la carrera médica DOI: 10.15568/am.2019.807.cd02 Dear Editor, This report extends a proposal raised several years ago (1) , based on a personal experience timely carried out in the framework of a discipline: Histology and Embryology. Since a medical career is one of the multiple accessing ways towards human beings, humanism is implicit in it. Thus, graduates could be metaphorically visualized as having a han- dful of keys provided by their career. Although the main one is aimed at goals like health promotion, prevention, diagno- sis, treatment and rehabilitation, there remain others offe- ring attractive possibilities for opening the trunk of humani- ties and arts. While particularly depending on the graduate, this en- deavor may be fostered by the medical curriculum, paying at- tention to questions like what, how and who, not only from the very beginning but also throughout the whole curriculum. The contents to be faced may be related with Philoso- phy (Epistemology, Logic, Ethics and Axiology), Anthropology, Psychology, Sociology, History (World History and History of Science and Medicine) as well as Geography. Furthermore, it would be appropriate venturing into Literature, Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, Theater, Cinema and Music. The way ahead will require achieving a well-adjusted mixture of huma- nity-based knowledge and the traditional whole set of biologi- cal sciences supporting Medicine. In this regard, traditional and innovated curricula offer a great deal of curricular (courses, seminars, workshops) and extracurricular opportunities, wherein TICs emerge as useful tools. Teachers may also take advantage of their own medical discipline by relating it with the abovementioned humanistic and/or artistic contents, whenever possible. Instead of professionals mimicking teachers, such ini- tiative demands real professional teachers able to work in an interdisciplinarity fashion using each cultural situation as a thematic trigger, incentive challenging, learning facilitator and/or mnemonic tool for memory reinforcement. In doing so, teachers and organizers will have to work conjointly. Finally, the Letamendi’s quotation: “ The doctor who only knows Medicine, not even Medicine knows” sounds inspiring for achieving the mandatory endeavor of incorporating huma- nities and arts to the medical career. REFERENCE 1. D’Ottavio AE. Ser Médico. Reflexiones sobre la formación y la práctica médicas. Editorial Homo Sapiens: Rosario; 2001 Actual. Med. 2019; 104: (807): 135 Alberto Enrique D’Ottavio Cattani Facultad de Ciencias Médicas y Consejo de Investigaciones Universidad Nacional de Rosario Rosario, Argentina aedottavio@hotmail.com Teléfono: +54-341-155-862173