General Interest: How 'Artful Thinking' Can Improve Your Visual Intelligence
By: Teodora Zareva
Submitted by: Michael Maury, UCSD School of Medicine

In this article, author Teodora Zareva discusses “a recent study from the University of Pennsylvania” which “shows how principles from the field of visual arts can successfully be applied to medical training to increase observational and descriptive abilities.” As Zareva puts it, “observational skills are critical for medical students and yet students undergo no specific training to develop them.” According to this article, the results from this research study “were impressive”. As one 1st year medical student reflected, “After just one session, I found myself listening to a radiologist discuss the same principles we used to look at art when analyzing a CT scan. Later I found our practice of creating narratives in the art class helped guide me when interacting with standardized patients.” Read on here to learn more about the “Artful Thinking” approach and how it might benefit medical education.

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