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Moving Us Closer To Osler
A Miller Coulson Academy of Clinical Excellence Initiative
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Creative Arts in Medicine
Connecting with Patients
Passion in the Medical Profession
Lifelong Learning in Clinical Excellence
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February 3, 2021 | 3 min read

How to Cultivate a “Friendtorship”

By Jared Rubenstein, MD, Baylor College of Medicine, Liz Salmi, OpenNotes Communications, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

A “friendtorship” is an informal peer-mentor relationship between two people with shared interests but different careers. “Friendtorships” can help you develop new perspectives and ideas about your own field.

September 29, 2020 | 4 min read

Respecting All Patients

By Chase Anderson, MD, University of California San Francisco

Using your patient’s correct pronoun at all times is critical to supporting their mental well-being.

July 20, 2021 | 2 min read

3 lessons on clinical excellence from the oncology clinic

By Sajya Singh, Medical Student, Johns Hopkins Medicine

While shadowing clinicians in cancer care, I learned the importance of spending time to gather the family history, building trusting relationships, and balancing treatment plans with quality-of-life considerations.

November 17, 2022 | 2 min read

Personalized Clinical Quality Improvement

By Jeffrey Krimmel-Morrison, MD, University of Washington

Use evidence-informed practices in your self-directed learning—build a case tracking system, work simulated cases, use quizzing, and seek new evidence efficiently. 

June 15, 2023 | 1 min read

Lessons From a Humble Mentor 

By Rafael Llinas, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine

My mentor, Dr. Martin Samuels, modeled outstanding communication skills with patients, colleagues, and trainees. He discussed times when he was wrong so that others could learn from his mistakes. 

Aiden Crowley said that “a hug can be medicine” and that simple “presence and accompaniment” provides more for the patient and family than we might think.

November 23, 2022 | 1 min read

Using CLOSLER For Grand Rounds

By Richard Schaefer, MD, MPH, Johns Hopkins Medicine

CLOSLER has a wealth of material that can be leveraged to enhance teaching in a variety of settings, including lectures, bedside, and small group discussions. 

"The Zubaran, St Hugh of Grenoble at the Carthusian Refectory," ca 1663. Owned by Museo de Bellas Artes, Sevilla.

August 13, 2020 | 3 min read

Exploring Professional Identity Through Art

By Angelica Kene Ezeigwe, Medical Student, Johns Hopkins Medicine

Reflecting periodically on why you chose medicine as a career may help you to reconnect with your passion and rekindle the joy of serving patients.

December 5, 2023 | 3 min read

Museums make me a better clinician 

By Johannes Thorman, MD, Scania University Hospital, Malmo, Sweden

Museum-based health professions education is an emerging field. Studying visual art can help healthcare professionals become more patient, collaborative, rigorous, and appreciative of their colleagues.  

March 23, 2021 | 2 min read

Helping Patients Navigate The Healthcare System

By Kultaj Kaleka, MD, RN, Central Michigan University

We all share in the responsibility of assisting patients who find themselves in unfamiliar healthcare settings and scenarios. By experiencing some of the challenges our patients face, we can help to make systemic changes that will improve care.

August 15, 2022 | 2 min read

Role Modeling Vulnerability

By Daniel Saddawi-Konefka, MD, MBA, Massachusetts General Hospital

When a patient dies, sharing your emotions with trainees normalizes this response and highlights our shared humanity.  

June 1, 2021 | 2 min read

The Lifelong Journey in Professional Identity Formation

By Margot Kelly-Hedrick, MD, University of Washington

We must work toward defining our identities throughout our careers as we strive to give excellent care to every patient.

May 19, 2021 | 3 min read

Clinical Training Translating to Clinical Excellence

By Jennifer Spicer, MD, MPH, Emory University

Bias awareness achieved in teaching/learning can transfer to the clinic. Thus learners can help clinicians become aware of bias toward patients.

Mahabharata. Published by Geeta Press in Gorakhpur. Public domain, Library of Congress.

July 13, 2020 | 2 min read

Eklavya and the Power of Online Learning

By Mrinali Shetty, MD, University of Chicago, Yuvraj Chowdhury, MD, SUNY Downstate Medical Center

During the pandemic, there has been an increase in educational offerings that can enhance our clinical skills. This expansion of virtual learning opportunities, (like open-access Zoom lectures and grand rounds, and #MedTwitter #tweetorials on countless topics), can be a boon for all.

April 19, 2023 | 1 min read

A Fall Into Grace

By Emily Rodriguez, medical student, Johns Hopkins Medicine

I felt disappointed when I forgot to keep my patient at the center of care. I reminded myself that I have the chance to do better next time. 

October 12, 2022 | 1 min read

Equity and Inclusion: Beyond The Recognition Phase

By Vivian Altiery De Jesus, MD, MBE, Johns Hopkins Medicine

Increasing the diversity of minority clinicians is a first step in combatting racism in medicine. We must also ensure that curricula are free of stereotypes and bias. 

Photograph by Dr. Margaret Chisolm.

January 30, 2020 | 6 min read

December Art Museum Challenge

By Flora Smyth Zahra, MA Clin Ed, DRestDent RCS, FHEA, Kings College London, Margaret Chisolm, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine

The art museum is an emerging informal educational space for the health professions. Here, transformative learning theory provides educators with a model to understand how, through systematically challenging learners’ preconceived beliefs, assumptions, and values, students can grow in their developing professional role.

June 25, 2018 | 2 min read

On The Professional Formation of Doctors

By Margaret Chisolm, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine

By getting out of the business of knowledge and skills and returning to the work of professional formation, not only will medical schools and their patients win, but doctors—and the profession of medicine as a whole—will too.

"L'Atelier au mimosa," Pierre Bonnard.

May 13, 2019 | 7 min read

April Art Museum Challenge

By Flora Smyth Zahra, MA Clin Ed, DRestDent RCS, FHEA, Kings College London, Margaret Chisolm, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine

Slow looking can enable clinicians to see more deeply, think more critically, and engage more meaningfully in patient care. Time spent in a museum supports clinician wellness and nurtures student professional identity formation.

August 1, 2019 | 3 min read

Mindset and the Power of Yet: A Conversation With Dr. Gurpreet Dhaliwal

By Sam Kant, MD, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Excellent clinicians are also thoughtful mentors. Mentors are like beacons as we navigate our path forward.

The courtyard within the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, Massachusetts. Photograph by Flora Smyth Zahra.

November 26, 2019 | 7 min read

October Art Museum Challenge

By Flora Smyth Zahra, MA Clin Ed, DRestDent RCS, FHEA, Kings College London, Margaret Chisolm, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine

Students appreciate the opportunity to engage with one another in the sanctuary of an art museum; the setting itself fosters well-being.

A Reversed Retrogress: Scene 1 (The Purple Shall Govern) (2013), Mary Sibande. Courtesy of the artist and Somerset House London. Photograph by Flora Smyth Zahra.

October 28, 2019 | 5 min read

September Art Museum Challenge

By Flora Smyth Zahra, MA Clin Ed, DRestDent RCS, FHEA, Kings College London, Margaret Chisolm, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine

By providing a creative space in which healthcare professionals can build skills integral to clinical practice, while also expressing their vulnerabilities and humanity, art museum-based education can humanize healthcare and provide an antidote to burnout.

"Tjulpu wiltja: bird nest basket," 2017, Ilawanti Ungkutjuru Ken, as part of "The Art of Healing: Australian Indigenous Bush Medicine," King’s College London.

July 11, 2019 | 7 min read

June Art Museum Challenge

By Flora Smyth Zahra, MA Clin Ed, DRestDent RCS, FHEA, Kings College London, Margaret Chisolm, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine

Art captures both the ordinary and extraordinary moments of human lives throughout history, and offers insights into how to heal ourselves and one another.

"An Infinity Room Installation," Yayoi Kusama. Wikivisually.com. Public Domain.

December 19, 2019 | 5 min read

November Art Museum Challenge

By Flora Smyth Zahra, MA Clin Ed, DRestDent RCS, FHEA, Kings College London, Margaret Chisolm, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine

The reality of clinical practice can be complex and uncertain and these sessions away from the clinics in and around the art museum space allow students through haptic exploration to become more comfortable with ambiguity.

Window at St. Leopold’s Church, depicting the seven corporal works of mercy. Photograph by Margaret S. Chisolm

September 18, 2019 | 7 min read

August Art Museum Challenge

By Flora Smyth Zahra, MA Clin Ed, DRestDent RCS, FHEA, Kings College London, Margaret Chisolm, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine

Clinical learning and practice are not removed from cultural and political realities. As clinical educators, it is our responsibility to create both humanistic learning environments that inculcate respect for the ultimate purpose of healthcare: the well-working of the human being as a whole.

Dr. Margaret Chisolm enjoying an outdoor art installation at the Glenstone. "FOREST (for a thousand years), 2012." Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller.

February 6, 2019 | 5 min read

On Looking

By Flora Smyth Zahra, MA Clin Ed, DRestDent RCS, FHEA, Kings College London, Margaret Chisolm, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine

The arts and humanities show us how to live as human beings. Our encounters with art help us to be better healthcare professionals, and give us insights that will help our learners and patients lead meaningful and purposeful lives.

Ruth and Carl J. Shapiro Gallery (Gallery 232), Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, featuring "Daughters of Edward Darley Boit," by John Singer Sargent (American, 1856–1925). Photograph by Flora Smyth Zahra.

June 6, 2019 | 7 min read

May Art Museum Challenge

By Flora Smyth Zahra, MA Clin Ed, DRestDent RCS, FHEA, Kings College London, Margaret Chisolm, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine

The art museum is a space that has lessons to teach about clinical excellence, and fosters both the personal development and professional identity formation of clinicians.

Dr. Margaret Chisolm captures a photograph of the painting, "John, 1st Baron Byron," 2013, Kehinde Wiley (American, born in 1977), at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

April 8, 2019 | 5 min read

On Looking: March Museum Visit

By Flora Smyth Zahra, MA Clin Ed, DRestDent RCS, FHEA, Kings College London, Margaret Chisolm, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine

Visual Thinking Strategies and the Personal Response Tour are two examples of museum-based pedagogical practice that build critical thinking skills, foster empathy, and allow for reflective space away from the clinic.

Wye Valley, Wales, by Taylor Purvis, October 2018.

February 28, 2019 | 2 min read

From Film School to Medical School, (Part 2 of 3)

By Margaret Chisolm, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine

Using both words and images, John Berger and Jean Mohr's photo-essay, "A Fortunate Man," provides an intimate glimpse into the role of the doctor: "To cure sometimes, to relieve often, and to comfort always."

Édouard Manet: "A Bar at the Folies-Bergère," 1881-1882. This is a faithful photographic reproduction of a two-dimensional, public domain work of art. The work of art itself is in the public domain for the following reason: Public domain This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or less.

August 6, 2019 | 7 min read

July Art Museum Challenge

By Flora Smyth Zahra, MA Clin Ed, DRestDent RCS, FHEA, Kings College London, Margaret Chisolm, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine

The skills required in the clinic are the same as those in the art gallery: to examine, investigate, embrace ambiguity, consider multiple interpretations, reflect, collaborate, and learn.

Guanyin, Bodhisattva of Compassion, Honolulu Museum of Art. Photo by Margaret Chisolm, MD.

March 7, 2019 | 5 min read

On Looking: February Museum Visit

By Flora Smyth Zahra, MA Clin Ed, DRestDent RCS, FHEA, Kings College London, Margaret Chisolm, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine

The more lessons on clinical excellence we look for in art, the more we find.

13 Norham Gardens, the Osler's home in Oxford from 1907 until their deaths.

June 6, 2018 | 1 min read

Open Arms: The Welcoming Spirit of the Osler Residence

By Margaret Chisolm, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine

Although we might not all live in a “substantial Victorian house” like William Osler’s, we can all embrace the welcoming spirit of “The Open Arms,” and invite more of our learners into our homes for informal meetings, mentorship, and maybe even tea.

May 29, 2018 | 2 min read

Love At First Sight

By Margaret Chisolm, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine

A clinically excellent physician always takes the time to ask his/her patient about the history of substance use in their parents and siblings, as well as aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins; and always asks about adoption.

March 5, 2019 | 3 min read

From Film School to Medical School (Part 3 of 3)

By Margaret Chisolm, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine

Using both words and images, John Berger and Jean Mohr's photo-essay, "A Fortunate Man," provides an intimate glimpse into the role of the doctor: "To cure sometimes, to relieve often, and to comfort always."

June 24, 2024 | 2 min read

Partnering with patients with intellectual and developmental disabilities in medical decision-making 

By Sara Mixter, MD, MPH, Johns Hopkins Medicine

When caring for patients with intellectual and developmental disabilities, explore supported decision-making options and prioritize communication needs. These steps should offer them more control over medical choices. 

Reverse Waterfall, Nasik, Maharashtra, India.

February 16, 2022 | 1 min read

Mentorship in Reverse

By Rayah Sawaya, MD, American University of Beirut

If you find a mentor who’s helpful and generous, consider reciprocating with “reverse mentoring.”

June 27, 2024 | 2 min read

Lessons from earlier in life: from public school teaching to doctoring  

By Tyler Mains, MD, University of California, San Francisco

I apply the principles I learned as a public school teacher to patient care: asking insightful questions, seeing the whole person, and fostering motivation for positive change. 

February 17, 2025 | 1 min read

Educating patients about OCD 

By Ghida Kassir, MD, University of Toronto, Canada

Clinicians can help patients with OCD understand the condition by emphasizing that intrusive thoughts are symptoms, not character flaws, and that compulsions, though temporarily relieving anxiety, ultimately perpetuate the cycle. 

September 12, 2022 | 2 min read

The Medical Interview And All That Jazz 

By Jeffrey Millstein, MD, Penn Medicine

Like learning to play jazz, medical interviewing skills can grow and develop through close observation and imitation of mentors. 

March 26, 2021 | 5 min read

“The Danger of a Single Story”

By Jade Cobern, MD, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Margaret Hannah, MD, MPH, Johns Hopkins Medicine, Rosemary Hawkins, MS, CCLS, Johns Hopkins Medicine

A single narrative creates biases, reinforces stereotypes, and can prevent us from seeing the full potential in ourselves and others. Appreciating multiple stories can deepen and broaden our perspectives.

June 8, 2018 | <1 min read

Book Review: Building Healthy Communities Through Medical-Religious Partnerships

By Roy Ziegelstein, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine

This book helps health professionals understand and appreciate how medical-religious partnerships can be developed, sustained, and used to improve the health of communities and the individuals who live in them.

June 11, 2019 | 2 min read

Burnt out on Burnout: how to understand what burnout means to you

By Hannah Wilson, MBBS, Harvard Medical School

In order to truly understand and prevent burnout, we must first define what it is that burnout means to each of us.

October 23, 2024 | 2 min read

Educated lucky: Making critical decisions without all the answers 

By Edana Mann, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine

In critical care, we often make life-saving decisions with incomplete information. Teamwork is essential, and sometimes acting on our best-educated guess is the only option. These moments remind us of life’s fragility and the importance of trusting our instincts and each other. 

September 17, 2018 | 2 min read

Listening, Educating, and Giving Reassurance

By Sharon Solomon, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine

By focusing on one patient at a time, 35-40 per day, my mission and approach to patient care is to listen, to educate, to intervene with treatment when I can, and to provide reassurance.

March 9, 2021 | 2 min read

Self-Compassion: A Resilience Strategy For Stressful Times

By Jennifer Hartmark-Hill, MD, University of Arizona

Cultivating self-compassion can combat stress and burnout, and improve your overall well-being.

July 9, 2018 | 2 min read

Educator, Advocate, Surgeon, and Caregiver for Life

By Matthew Weiss, MD, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

As a cancer surgeon, my approach to care focuses heavily on communication with patients and their loved ones. Quite simply, I treat patients as I would want to be treated myself as a patient. 

February 22, 2018 | 3 min read

Family History and Addiction Risk

By Margaret Chisolm, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine

For some patients the risk of becoming addicted to prescription opioids is extraordinarily high and may outweigh any pain control benefit.

February 16, 2024 | 1 min read

Patients and politics

By Mike Fingerhood, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine

Patient-initiated political statements may make healthcare professionals feel uncomfortable. Thoughtful strategies, like redirection, can keep the focus on patient care.

"The Persistence of Memory," Salvador Dali, 1931, The Museum of Modern Art.

November 19, 2018 | 2 min read

Learning from Learners

By Margaret Chisolm, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine

Teaching is the best way to learn. In the end, I am not only a teacher and my residents are not only learners, but we are both a little of each.

May 16, 2018 | 2 min read

The Stigma of Opioid Use Disorder

By Margaret Chisolm, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine

Building a strong therapeutic alliance between patient and clinician—via open communication, mutual respect, and trust—is a lifeline for the individual patient with an Opioid Use Disorder.

"Corridor in the Asylum," Vincent van Gogh, 1889. The Met Museum.

March 5, 2018 | 3 min read

Demystifying Psychiatry

By Margaret Chisolm, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine

Demystifying psychiatry for patients is the heart of my work. In its existential aspects, psychotherapy calls for the imagination of alternative possibilities.

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