The Healing Power of Paint

JAMA’s The Arts and Medicine Section at 5 Years—Progress and Opportunities

“…Exemplar essays include but are not limited to descriptions of a tattoo practice to help women recover from disfiguring breast cancer surgery 1 ; indigenous weaving techniques to create occlusive devices for infants with congenital cardiac septal defects 2 ; a program to encourage patients to develop their own art for their clinical spaces 3 ; and use of works of poetry and music to advance relationships with patients. [4][5][6][7] Over the years the journal has declined the opportunity to publish outstanding and literate essays, often because, with exceptions, the section tends not to prioritize • Primary or aspirational arguments for the importance of arts and culture to medicine (what it does, might, or should accomplish), as the section's existence demonstrates the journal's commitment to the premise • Narrative medicine essays, such as personal readings or experiences of arts and literature, as we generally seek to share observable arts rather than those in authors' imaginations and lives, and JAMA's A Piece of My Mind section is already dedicated to narrative writing • Poems, which are similarly referred to the journal's Poetry and Medicine section • Essays that reason through differential diagnoses of literary or historical figures or of images in the arts, as it is very difficult to bring new evidence to bear on questions of past disease, and because few criteria are available by which to distinguish more vs less accurate or productive diagnostic theories • Art created by physician artists unless, as above, it comes directly from patient encounters or can be used directly in the patient's interest • Descriptions of established music and art therapy programs without clear indications of the novelty or innovation of the arts being used or of how they are being used • Original research based on data sets and inferential statistics that require a different domain of peer review • Fiction and similar creative writing • Material previously published (typically online, as blog entries, videos, and others)…”

“…Exemplar essays include but are not limited to descriptions of a tattoo practice to help women recover from disfiguring breast cancer surgery; indigenous weaving techniques to create occlusive devices for infants with congenital cardiac septal defects; a program to encourage patients to develop their own art for their clinical spaces; and use of works of poetry and music to advance relationships with patients …”