American Medical Student Association

Opportunities in the Medical Humanities

AMSA

• Medical Humanities Scholars Program

Ethics

• AMA’s John Conley Ethics Essay Contest for Medical Students
• American Society for Bioethics and Humanities Conference

Fine Arts

• AMSA’s The New Physician Annual Creative Arts Contest

History

• American Association for the History of Medicine
  - Osler Medal Essay Contest
  - Shyrock Medal Essay Contest
• Southern Association for the History of Medicine and Science
• American Osler Society
  - William B. Bean Student Research Award

Journalism

• The New Physician
• Virtual Mentor

Literature

• AMSA National Book Discussion Series

Poetry

• Williams Carlos Williams Poetry Competition
• Medicine & Metaphors: Writing From the Heart

Writing Contests

• The American College of Legal Medicine Student Writing Competition
• Helen H. Glaser Student Essay Awards
• Sir John M. Templeton Fellowships Essay Contest

Great Reads & Watches

The following list was compiled through recommendations by other AMSA members as being an important book or film that was either influential in their lives or helped them along the road of medicine.

Books

• A Few Notes on Tropical Butterflies: Stories by John Murray
• An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness by Kay Redfield Jamison
• Another day in the frontal lobe: A Brain Surgeon Exposes Life on the Inside by Katrina Firlik
• And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic by Randy Shilts [Nonfiction, history of the beginnings of AIDS].
• Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance by Atul Gawande
• Blue Collar, Blue Scrubs: The Making of a Surgeon by Michael J Collins.
• Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science by Atul Gawande
• County: Life, Death and Politics at Chicago’s Public Hospital by David Ansell [Underserved Medicine].
• Cutting for Stone by Atul Gawande [Fiction, Ethiopian journey into medicine]
• Free To Love Free To Heal: Heal Your Body by Healing Your Emotions by Dr. Simon [Mind-body medicine]
• Gray Matter A Neurosurgeon Discovers the Power of Prayer . . . One Patient at a Time by David Levy. [Christian. Neurosurgery]
• Healing the Wounds: A Physician Looks at His Work by David Hilfiker [Challenges of family practice]
• Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder [Haiti]
• My Own Country: A Doctor’s Story by Abraham Varghese
• Reproducing Inequities: Poverty and the Politics of Population in Haiti by Catherine Maternowska [Medical anthropology, family planning, Haiti]
• The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness by Elyn R. Saks
• The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right by Atul Gawande
• The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth by M. Scott Peck
• People of the Lie by M. Scott Peck
• Perfect Health by Dr. Chopra [Mind-body medicine]
• Something for the Pain: Compassion and Burnout in the ER by Paul Austin.
• The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures by Anne Fadiman [Nonfiction, US health care, cultural barriers]
• Terminal Man by Michael Crichton [Fiction, Medical Ethics].
• The Female Brain by Louann Brizendine
• The Heart Speaks: A Cardiologist Reveals the Secret Language of Healing by Mimi Guarneri
• The House of God by Samuel Shem
• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot [Research Ethics, HeLa cancer cell line]
• This is a Soul: The Mission of Rick Hodes by Marilyn Berger
• The Kitchen Shrink: A Psychiatrist’s Reflections on Healing in a Changing World by Dora Wang.
• The Schopenhauer Cure: A Novel by Irvin Yalom. [Psychiatry. Group therapy.]
• Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the New War on the Poor by Paul Farmer [Nonfiction, Global health, disparities]
• The Social Transformation of American Medicine: The rise of a sovereign profession and the making of a vast industry by Paul Starr [History, Pulitzer Prize]
• Willing and Unable: Doctors' Constraints in Abortion Care by Lori Freedman [Nonfiction, abortion provision]

Film

• A Walk to Beautiful - NOVA / PBS, 2008. [Documentary, obstetric surgery in Ethiopia]
• Doc Hollywood / Warner Home Video, 1991. [Surgeon to rural health]
• John Q / New Line Home Video, 2002. [Healthcare]
• Making the Crooked Straight / New Video Group, 2011 [Documentary, Dr. Rick Hodes]
• No Past to Speak Of / Films Transit International Inc. 2006. [Documentary, child rape in South Africa]
• One flew over the Cuckoo's Nest / Warner Bros. 1975 [Psychiatry]
• Patch Adams / Universal Studies, 1998. [Based on a true story]
• Shutter Island / Paramount, 2009. [Psychiatry]
• Sicko / Weinstein Company, 2007. [Documentary, healthcare, socialized medicine]
• Something the Lord Made / HBO Home Video, 2004.
• The Business of Being Born / Warner Bros. 2008 [Documentary, woman controlling delivery and care]
• The Doctor / Walt Disney Video, 1991.
• The Painted Veil / Warner Home Video, 2007 [Cholera in China]
• Tuesdays with Morrie / Buena Vista Home Entertainment, 1999. [Based on a true story, ALS & Homecare]
• Wit / HBO Home Video, 2001. [End of life care, Emmy award]

Television

• Deliver Me / Oprah Winfrey Network [Follows three OBs in a high-risk practice]

If you have any great reads or watches you’d like to add to this list, you can e-mail them to me at DLEE15@LUMC.EDU.