1. 2010 AMSA National Writersʼ Institute Syllabus
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Bearing Witness INTRODUCTION
1. Charon, R. Chapter 9: bearing witness. In: Narrative Medicine: Honoring the Stories of Illness,
177-201. New York: Oxford University Press; 2006: 177-201.
About Small Group Writing Practices
1. Hewson, MG, Little ML. Giving feedback in medical education. J Gen Intern Med. 1998;13:111-
116.
Friday, July 23, 2010 POLICY
Writers, Reporters and Editors Talk about Health & Medicine in the Media
Morning panel discussion
1. Linden TL and the Writers of The New York Times. Introduction: Chapter 1: breaking news;
chapter 7: explanatory stories; chapter 14, Blogs. In The New York Times Reader: Health &
Medicine. Washington, DC: CQ Press; 2011.
2. Schraeder TL. Editing and education. NEJM fellowship: the ultimate journal club. Science Editor
2005; 25: 141–2.
Afternoon panel discussion
1. Mullan F, Ficklen E. Rubin K. eds. Narrative Matters: The Power of Personal Essay in Health
Policy. Balitmore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press; 2006.
2. Wiley E, Mullan F. Beware the siren song of new gme: graduate medical education and health
reform. Health Affairs blog. http://healthaffairs.org/blog/2009/06/15/beware-the-siren-song-of-
new-gme-graduate-medical-education-and-health-reform/. Published: June 15, 2009. Accessed
August 1, 2009.
Evening session Healersʼ Voices
1. Basile MA. Midnight rain. JAMA. 2009;301(12):1206.
2. Bronson R. Imperfect knowledge. CMAJ. 2008; 179(6).
3. Bronson R. Silent music. Cold Spring Harbor, NY: Padishah Press; 2009.
4. Campo, R. The enemy. Durham, NC: Duke University Press; 2007.
5. Campo R. Why should medical student be writing poems. J Med Humanit. 2006;27:253–254.
Note: Articles are hyperlinked, click on the title to download or go to online source.

2. 2010 AMSA National Writersʼ Institute Syllabus
Saturday, July 24, 2010 EDUCATION
Listening for the story Basile M. (Prose track)
1. Frank AW. Why doctorsʼ stories matter. Can Fam Physician. 2010 January; 56(1): 51–54
The Creative Voice in Medicine Campo R. (Prose track)
1. Verghese A. The physician as storyteller. Ann Intern Med. 2001; 135; 1012-1017
Truth and memory in writing DasGupta S. (Prose track)
1. DasGupta, S. “Being John Doe Malkovich: Truth, Imagination and Story in Medicine.” Literature
and Medicine. 2006;25(2):439-462.
Story idea generation Linden T. (Journalism track)
1. Linden TL and the Writers of The New York Times. Introduction; Chapter 1: breaking news;
chapter 7: explanatory stories; chapter 14, Blogs. In The New York Times Reader: Health &
Medicine. Washington, DC: CQ Press, 2011.
Writing For Our Lives Reisman A. (Prose track)
1. Scannell K. Writing for our lives: physician narratives and medical practice. Ann Intern Med.
2002;137(9):779–781.
Physician as communicator Schraeder T. (Prose track)
1. Adee S. Winner: the revolution will be prosthetized darpa's prosthetic arm gives amputees new
hope. Spectrum IEE: http://bit.ly/spectrumieee. Published January 2009. Accessed: June 15,
2010.
2. Kolata, G. grant system leads cancer researchers to play it safe. New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/28/health/research/28cancer.html. Published: June 28, 2009.
Accessed: June 15, 2010.
3. Kolata, G. good or useless, medical scans cost the same. New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/02/health/02scans.html?_r=1. Published: March 1, 2009.
Accessed: June 15, 2010.
Multimedia in Medicine: Social Media & Health Care Wiebe C. (Journalism track)
1. Boulos MNK, Maramba I, Wheeler S. Wikis, blogs and podcasts: a new generation of web-based
tools for virtual collaborative clinical practice and education. BMC Med Educ 2006;6:41
How To Tell A Medical Story Zink T. (Prose track)
Ofri D. "Merced". In: Atwan R, Gould SJ. eds. Best American Essays. New York, New York:
Mariner Books; 2002: 237–252
Note: Articles are hyperlinked, click on the title to download or go to online source.

3. 2010 AMSA National Writersʼ Institute Syllabus
Sunday, July 24, 2010 ADVOCACY
Intersections: Medical Humanities & Bioethics
1. Baruch J. The story always comes first. NYU Literature, Arts and Medicine Blog.
http://medhum.med.nyu.edu/blog/?p=146 Published: October 17, 2008. Accessed: August 1, 2009.
2. Janisse T. Stories tell us what we need to know: perspective for ethical dilemmas. The Permanente
Journal http://xnet.kp.org/permanentejournal/winter04/stories.html. Published: December 2004.
Accessed: August 15, 2009.
Writing for Resistance
1. DasGupta S, Fornari A, Geer K, Hahn L, Kumar V, Lee HJ, Rubin S, Gold M. Medical education for
social justice: Paulo Freire revisited. J Med Humanit. 2006;27(4):245-51.
2. Shem S. Fiction as resistance. Ann Intern Med. 2002;137(11):934-937.
The Art of Medicine in Medical Education
1. Raphael L. Establishing a Medical Humanities Program at George Washington University School of
Medicine. NYU Literature, Arts and Medicine Blog. NYU Literature, Arts and Medicine Blog.
http://medhum.med.nyu.edu/blog/?p=50 Published: September 23, 2007 Accessed: July 1, 2010.
2. Wershof Schwartz A, Abramson JS, Wojnowich I, Accordino R, Ronan EJ, Rifkin MR.
Evaluating the impact of the humanities in medical education. Mt Sinai J Med 2009;Aug;76(4):372-80.
Project development: From Idea to Reality
1. Runyan A. Medical student pathway in ethics and humanities. 2009. University of Miami School of
Medicine. http://www.mededu.miami.edu/MedEd/divisionsFolder/student_affairs/e-
docs/EthicsPathwayOverviewFinal9-09.pdf.
2. Ellington K. Physicians' Storytelling via Webinar. NYU Literature, Arts and Medicine Blog. NYU
Literature, Arts and Medicine Blog. http://medhum.med.nyu.edu/blog/?p=621 Published: April 6, 2010
Accessed: July 16, 2010
Note: Articles are hyperlinked, click on the title to download or go to online source.

4. 2010 AMSA National Writersʼ Institute Syllabus
Related webinars:
July 1, 2010
Overview: 2010 AMSA National Writersʼ Institute at
https://amsaorg.webex.com/amsaorg/ldr.php?AT=pb&SP=MC&rID=42689757&rKey=dc25232497d4d43a
June 22, 2010
Dr. Lindenʼs AMSA National Book Discussion webinar on The New York Times Reader: Health &
Medicine at
https://amsaorg.webex.com/amsaorg/ldr.php?AT=pb&SP=MC&rID=42334867&rKey=0116552897cef64d
co-host: Julia Michie special guest: Ed Sylvester
May 11, 2010
Dr. Campo's AMSA National Book Discussion webinar on The Enemy .You can view this recorded
session at
https://amsaorg.webex.com/amsaorg/ldr.php?AT=pb&SP=MC&rID=40714302&rKey=3f191c0bab306df3
Special guests include: Dr. Maria Basile and Dr. Abby Caplin.
Supplemental reading:
Brady DW, Corbie-Smith G., Branch WT. “Whatʼs important to you?” The use of narratives to promote self-
reflection and to understand the experiences of medical residents. Ann Intern Med. 2002;137(3):220–223.
Coulehan J and Hawkins AH. Keeping faith: Ethics and the physician-writer. Ann Intern Med 2003;139:307-311.
Levine RB, Kern DE, Wright SM. The impact of prompted narrative writing during internship on reflective
practice: a qualitative study. Adv in Health Sci Educ. 2008;13:723–733.
Reisman AB, Hansen H, Rastegar A. The craft of writing: A physician-writer's workshop for resident
physicians. J Gen Intern Med. 2006; 21(10):1109–1111.
Verghese A. Culture shock – patient as icon, icon as patient. N Engl J Med. 2008;359:2748-5.
Wald HS, Davis SW, Reis SP, Monroe AD, Borkan JM. Reflecting on reflections: enhancement of medical
education curriculum with structured field notes and guided feedback. Acad Med. 2009;84:830-7.
Note: Articles are hyperlinked, click on the title to download or go to online source.