ABOUT
THIS INITIATIVE IS BOTH A SYNTHESIS AND COMPLETE REIMAGINING OF THREE WELL-ESTABLISHED PROGRAMS FROM MEDICAL SCHOOLS AT:
1. COLUMBIA
2. USC
3. AND HARVARD.
RESPECTIVELY THOSE PROGRAMS EMPHASIZE:
1. NARRATIVE MEDICINE
2. STORYTELLING IN HEALTHCARE
3. ADVOCACY WITHIN THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY.
“Medicine, Media, and Communication (MMC)” has three foci across the thirty weeks of an academic year. Everything comes together in a sandbox or lab structure, where students will dramatically increase their skills as communicators and healthcare advocates.
MMC is also designed to nurture greater diversity in those communicative techniques with options for bilingual students and cross-cultural, interfaith, or community research. After all, nearly one in three LA County residents was born outside the US; a majority of them speak a language other than English at home.
The MMC lab members meet twice a week, for three hours on each occasion; this program avoids both lectures and unidirectional monologs. Passive learning becomes active. The first of those weekly meetings will involve a guest speaker from a relevant professional field; the second will turn from theoretical discussion to practical applications and workshopping.
Skills are introduced and then immediately applied to deliverables of professional benefit to each and every lab member. As shown below, students may focus on traditional publications or prepare multimedia tools and deliverables for healthcare advocacy, no matter their area of expertise. The MMC will advance careers both inside and beyond established settings.
Grading: Satisfactory /Unsatisfactory
THE THREE PRIMARY EMPHASES:
1. NARRATIVE MEDICINE
2. STORYTELLING, FILM, AND SOCIAL MEDIA IN HEALTHCARE
3. ADVOCACY WITHIN THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY
The deliverable at the end of the AoC must synthesize all three. Students will be asked to choose an issue within healthcare for which they wish to advocate. Next, that advocacy will be advanced in at least two of the following ways, always abiding by guidelines from the National Association for healthcare Advocacy:
ACADEMIC ARTICLE. Here a draft article will be prepared for submission to a leading Narrative Medicine journal:
- Journal of Medical Humanities (JMH)
- Medical Humanities (British Medical Journal/BMI)
- American Medical Association (JAMA Network)
- Narrative Inquiry in Bioethics, etc.
TELEMEDICINE: Five minutes of footage documenting ideal patient interaction, either face-to-face or over video link, according to technical guidelines from the BMJ in London and HIPAA standards in the US
A COMPLETE ADVOCACY CAMPAIGN: Public Service Announcements and Advocacy Materials, modeled on the American Medical Association’s successes during Covid-19.
AN OP-ED (in any language[s]), modeled on the style and standards of the New York Times
A Professional Pitch Video for community-based advocacy and fundraising
CREATIVE WRITING: And within entertainment itself, a civically-minded screenplay or series of podcasts. Medical journals accepting artistic work include:
- Annals of Internal Medicine
- British Medical Journal
- Health Affairs
- Journal of American Medical Association
- American Medical Writers Association
The resulting portfolio will prove the acquisition of new technical, promotional, narrative, and communicative skills. All in ways that allow their immediate application to a healthcare challenge of direct and personal interest to the student.
