Drs. Andrea Kalus & Molly B. Jackson Awarded $5K for Med Student Art Program

Congratulations to Andrea Kalus, MD, and Molly Blackley Jackson, MD

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, who have recently been awarded a $5000 grant through the Association of American Medical College

www.aamc.org

 (AAMC) and the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine

www.improvediagnosis.org

 (SIDM) to support their collaborative project titled, “Exploring diagnostic error and error recovery with medical students: A printmaking and microgallery SMS text-based art show.”

Drs. Kalus and Blackley Jackson have been using printmaking with students and healthcare teams over the past several years (e.g., (Im)Printed Art Exhibition

). Artmaking allows students to practice self-compassion and persistence through perceived mistakes. Printmaking is a multistep activity where an image carved on one material is reversed and printed on paper. There is an intentional shift in perspective as one carves the reverse image. Especially for novices, artmaking allows participants to accept imperfection and welcome surprises.

The project will engage UW medical students across WWAMI (Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, Idaho) with an SMS text-based gallery show, using the student’s art. The art gallery will be shared using an e-learning SMS text-based platform including a 10-day text exchange curriculum based on the SIDM consensus curriculum around diagnostic error. Micro learning with text-based responses creates spaced learning that is novel, engaging, and may enhance retention. The program will run from June through Sept. 2023.

Dr. Andrea Kalus is a dermatologist and Associate Professor in the UW Division of Dermatology. She is the Faculty Advisor for the Humanities and the Arts Pathway (HAP), a 4-year elective for medical students exploring the intersection of the humanities disciplines and medicine. 

Dr. Molly Blackley Jackson, is a general internal medicine physician and Associate Professor in the UW Division of General Internal Medicine

. She is the Assistant Dean for The Colleges

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 at the UW School of Medicine, which provides support and mentorship to medical students across the WWAMI region.

Drs. Kalus and Blackley Jackson’s project is funded through the Art of Diagnosis, a collaboration between the AAMC and SIDM, and sponsored by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. The program awards funding to institutions to host events that would display or present creative works (literary, visual or performing arts) of undergraduate medical students related to their experiences with diagnosis, diagnostic error or learning the diagnostic process. 

The Art of Diagnosis falls under the AAMC's FRAHME

 (Fundamental Role of the Arts and Humanities in Medical Education) initiative — founded on the assertion that the practice of medicine is an art as well as a science, requiring a grounding in humanistic values, principles, and skills. The FRAHME initiative recommends and facilitates approaches to enhancing medical student development through engagement with the arts and humanities.