Missoula hospital and university form Institute of Medicine and Humanities to bring literature, ethics into clinical care

Missoula’s Saint Patrick Hospital and faculty from a state university have established the Institute of Medicine and Humanities, a partnership of seminars, reading groups and a dedicated library collection intended to integrate literature, philosophy and the arts into clinical practice.

Organizers say the initiative brings humanities disciplines into conversation with medical science to help clinicians understand the “illness narrative” from patients’ perspectives and to broaden ethical decision-making in care. Missoula cardiologist John Stone and faculty in the university’s philosophy department convened a monthly reading group in 1987 that helped seed the institute’s programs, organizers told the meeting transcript.

The program’s activities include regular seminars for physicians, nurses and other health professionals, text-based discussions that organizers say let clinicians explore patient experience away from workplace pressures, and community-facing offerings. Transcript material describes an effort to assemble the Ridge Library, a specialized collection of books, journals and media on the medical humanities funded by a “generous donation” (amount not specified) and intended for use by scholars, clinicians and the public.

Program leaders expanded early work in bioethics into broader humanities topics, with literature singled out as a frequent focus. The transcript cites reading works such as Tolstoy’s "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" as an example of material organizers use to prompt discussion about end-of-life experience and how clinicians might help patients “live fully.” The institute has also offered seminars on charged topics including AIDS to surface ethical and practical tensions in care.

Speakers described practical benefits they associate with the seminars: clinicians reported spending more time on preoperative preparation, using narrative techniques to surface patient fears, and finding that extended discussion with colleagues in a nonclinical setting altered working relationships. At the same time, the transcript records resistance among some physicians who view humanities programming as ancillary or who say they lack time to participate.

University representatives approached Saint Patrick’s leadership about a cooperative venture; Lawrence L. White Jr., identified in the transcript as president of Saint Patrick Hospital, was described as receptive to the idea. Organizers characterize the institute as uncommon outside major teaching hospitals and say they are trying to move the program beyond campus walls into the broader community.

No formal policy or regulatory actions were recorded in the transcript. The record documents program history (reading group dating to 1987), the creation of a specialized library collection, seminar topics and participant observations about clinical practice, and notes the program’s ongoing effort to involve community members and to serve as a model for similar partnerships elsewhere.

The institute’s funding sources beyond the single donation for the Ridge Library are not specified in the transcript, nor are program budgets or formal governance arrangements.

Looking ahead, organizers say they plan to continue public programs and to expand the institute’s reach; the transcript did not record specific implementation milestones, program budgets or formal agreements with external funders.