Linda K. Friedlaender

Looking is not seeing: using art to improve observational skills.

This project evaluated the effects of an art museum experience on the observational skills of nursing students. Half of a class of non-nurse college graduates entering an accelerated masters degree program (n = 34) were assigned to a museum experience, whereas the other half (n = 32) received traditional teaching methods. Using original works of art, students participated in focused observational experiences to visually itemize everything noted in the art piece, discriminate visual qualities, recognize patterns, and cluster observations. After organizing observed information, they drew conclusions to construct the objects meaning. Participants visiting the museum subsequently wrote more about what they saw, resulting in significantly more objective clinical findings when viewing patient photographs. In addition, participants demonstrated significantly more fluidity in their differential diagnosis by offering more alternative diagnoses than did the control group. The study supports the notion that focused viewing of works of art enhances observational skills.

Saints Cosmas and Damian: Patron Saints of Medicine

T he art of medicine in the 3rd to 4th centuries CE, similar to all times that preceded it, was largely based upon the potential healing benefits found by trial and error in the animal, plant, and mineral kingdoms. Surgical approaches to disease, as gleaned from surviving instruments, art, and printed materials, were characterized by cutting, scraping, and probing [4]. Most medical lore of the era was grounded in religious belief. Indeed, both the leading causes of illness and the most heralded successful treatments were ascribed to the acts of gods/God. At the literal and figurative crossroads of Western civilization during these early centuries, as epitomized by commerce, education, and religion, lay Antioch [2]. Founded in 293 BC in ancient northern Syria, now southern Turkey, and near the Mediterranean coast, the region was host to multiple cultures and religions. The route between Antioch and Rome witnessed triumphs (birth of Christianity) and tragedies (First Crusade) of historical proportions and was the context that produced at least four patron saints of medicine. We will focus here on two of these physician-saints, Cosmas and Damian, and refer you to an elegant summary by Leonard Peltier of the lives of all four of these remarkable individuals, including Saint Luke the Apostle and Saint Panteleimon, which was published in Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research in 1997 [5]. Cosmas and Damian were Arabian twins, born of devoutly Christian parents around 270 CE. They grew up with three other brothers in Aegeae, a small town between Turkey and Syria and on the route from Antioch to Tarsus, an ancient city in south-central Turkey near the Mediterranean Sea. This region was within the expansive Roman Empire, and the twins lived during the reign of Emperor Diocletian and his local governor, Lysias. In this time and place, the Roman state aggressively persecuted its Christians [1, 3, 5]. Raised by their mother, Theodota, and following the early death of their father, Cosmas and Damian studied medicine in Antioch and then returned to Aegeae to practice and proselytize. Portraits of the two brothers alone or with the rest of their family invariably show Cosmas and Damian holding boxes, tubes, or vessels associated with the medications or illnesses of the day (Fig 1). These devices serve as symbols of the medical and pharmaceutical Note from the Editor-in-Chief: I am pleased to introduce the next installment of ‘‘Art in Science,’’ team-written by Gary Friedlaender and Linda Friedlaender. Gary is the Wayne O. Southwick Professor, and Chair Emeritus for the Department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation at Yale School of Medicine; Linda Friedlaender is the Senior Curator of Education at the Yale Center for British Art. Together, they will share observations from a fascinating vantage point: The intersection of art and medicine. The authors certify that they or any member of their immediate families have no funding or commercial associations (eg, legal, consultancies, stock ownership, equity interest, patent/licensing arrangements, etc) that might pose a conflict of interest in connection with the submitted article. All ICMJE Conflict of Interest Forms for authors and Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research editors and board members are on file with the publication and can be viewed on request. The opinions expressed are those of the writers, and do not reflect the opinion or policy of CORR or The Association of Bone and Joint Surgeons. G. E. Friedlaender MD (&) Department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation, Yale University School of Medicine, PO Box 208071, New Haven, CT 06520-8071, USA e-mail: gary.friedlaender@yale.edu