Confluence: Understanding Medical Humanities Through Street Theatre

The effectiveness of arts-based interventions in medical education is well documented(1) but the development of medical humanities in Southeast Asia is a relatively recent phenomenon.(2 3) The University College of Medical Sciences, Delhi, was the first Indian medical school to introduce medical humanities to its staff and students. A Medical Humanities Group was founded in 2009 and membership was open to all. 4 Initial activities were directed towards sharing literature, with a bias towards Indian culture, including poetry in Hindi. In the inaugural year, student-led lunchtime meetings were attended by faculty. In the second year, there was a series of lectures by eminent guest speakers, in the form of a colloquium, called 'Confluence'. The idea was to provide a forum to discuss art and medicine as a whole.(5) As a result of these discussions, the group decided they wanted to work on the street theatre-based project described in this case study.