Waxing and waning with budgetary constraints, a "medical humanities presence" at Thomas Jefferson University has existed since the 1990s in a variety of formats:

• In the early 1990s, a Program in Medical Humanities and the Social Sciences sponsored an annual lecture series on topics in literature, medical history, and sociology as well as independent student projects in these areas.
  
  
• The Doctor, Health and Illness course, required for all first year undergraduate medical students and currently restructured as Medical Practice for the 21st Century, always has consisted of small group discussions in addition to lectures. The course develops a bio-psycho-social model of medicine, emphasizes the doctor patient relationship, and most recently has included brief, self-reflective essays.
  
  From the mid 1990s until this year, a visit to the Philadelphia Museum was part of the course. Guided by a museum educator and their small group facilitators from Jefferson, students explored portrayals of suffering in selected works of art. Visits to the Brancusi wing, and the museum’s replica of a 13th century French Abbey and a Hindu Temple also stimulated discussion on the impact of structured space, including a hospital. Students then submitted a brief reaction essay.
  
  
• The addition of DHI II to the 2nd year curriculum, more recently reconfigured as Doctor in Society, integrates core issues raised in DHI I. Students are now required to present cases and review articles on the topics covered by the Foundations of Clinical Medicine course. Humanities materials are used in various DIS modules, especially the one on death and dying.
  
  
• Sponsored by the Gold Foundation, the White Coat Ceremony comes at the end of First Year Orientation. Along with the presentation of white coats to the students, the event highlights the ethical integrity, commitment to patient care, and responsibility to the medical community expected of the medical students. Recitation of the Hippocratic Oath marks the event as a formal, professional initiation.
  
  
• Humanities electives were regularly offered during the intensive three week Jan Plan for first year students and during the spring Sophomore Seminars. In addition to a regular course on ethics, topics have included:
  • Literary Images of Aging
  • The Body in Medicine
  • The History of Medicine
  • Complementary Medicine and its Models
  • Medicine and Literature
  • Literary Portrayals of Grief and Loss
  
  
• The Third Year Clerkship in Family Medicine requires a community rotation and a brief reflective essay describing the student’s sense of the experience.
  
  
• The Scott Memorial Library has an extensive collection of historical anatomical illustrations available for viewing.
  
  
• Since its creation in 1994, the Division of Medicine and the Arts at the Philadelphia College of Physicians has regularly invited the Jefferson community to participate in its programs. These include concerts, art slide shows related to medicine, and presentations by physicians who are scholars in Medical Humanities and/or artists themselves.

Valuable in many ways, these efforts, unfortunately, often have reached a limited number of students and faculty.

Part 4 will conclude this series by addressing "Where Is Medical Humanities at Jeff Now?"

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