Investigating the Presence of the History of Medicine in North American Medical Education: Can One of the Medical Humanities Concisely Integrate with Biomedical and Clinical Content with Reference to Clinical Competencies?

INTRODUCTION: As a curricular topic, the history of medicine can reinforce medical knowledge while integrating the benefits associated with humanities education. This study examined the degree to which medical history was present in the curricula of North American Medical Schools, how those sessions (if any) were delivered, and who delivered them. We hypothesized that medical history would be present but that very few American Medical schools would have mandatory sessions, that the presentation of this content would be very diverse, and that sessions would be presented by a variety of professionals. METHODS: We compiled a contact list of deans and curricular administrators at each institution and recruited respondents from an online discussion board. Respondents completed a short survey regarding the curriculum at their home institution. RESULTS: We received responses from 96 of 209 institutions (46.0%). Of these, 29.2% of respondents indicated that their institution had mandatory sessions on medical history, 42.7% had non-mandatory curricular sessions, 49.0% had extracurricular sessions, and 21.4% had electives on the history of medicine. Lecture was the primary means of delivery in all modalities except for the electives, which primarily used small group discussion. Clinical faculty were the most common people overseeing these sessions, but a wide variety of others also contributed. DISCUSSION: While few North American medical schools had mandatory sessions on the history of medicine, the topic was present in very diverse ways. The lack of standardization in teaching the history of medicine may provide fertile ground for subsequent research in medical education.