Two New Visual Arts Programs Help Boston Medical Center Residents and Fellows Hone Their Skills as Clinicians
Both offer a novel approach that uses art to improve clinical diagnoses, become comfortable with ambiguity
Two New Visual Arts Programs Help Boston Medical Center Residents and Fellows Hone Their Skills as Clinicians
Both offer a novel approach that uses art to improve clinical diagnoses, become comfortable with ambiguity
This article was originally published in BU Today on November 3, 2025. By Jessica Colarossi. Video by Gabe Davis. Photos by Cydney Scott
In the video above, BUMC residents in the Visual Thinking & Art in Learning Medicine (VITAL) program visit BU’s Faye G., Jo, and James Stone Gallery, where they take part in a number of exercises designed to hone their observation skills.
EXCERPT
On a recent evening, medical residents from Boston Medical Center (BMC), BU’s primary teaching hospital, found themselves on the Boston University Charles River campus in the College of Fine Arts quiet, spacious Faye G., Jo, and James Stone Gallery. They viewed art ranging from sculpture to contemporary and abstract paintings done by BU art students. The residents were there as part of the VITAL (Visual Thinking & Art in Learning Medicine) Program, a new educational initiative designed to immerse BMC residents and fellows in the language and skills of the arts that translate to the medical field. By using art as the vehicle, early-career physicians can delve into the gray areas of medicine—like observation, interpretation, empathy, and ambiguity.
Using humanities and the arts to educate the next generation of doctors has gained popularity, and BU is no exception. VITAL is one of two recently launched programs at BMC—the other is the MANET Project (Museum Art in Neurology Education Training). Both programs create learning experiences that cannot be gained from medical textbooks and hospital shifts.
VITAL began in 2025 and is overseen by Deepthi Gunasekaran, a nephrologist and assistant professor of medicine at BU’s Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, and Gopala Krishna Yadavalli, an infectious disease expert and clinical associate professor of medicine at the medical school, in collaboration with Lissa Cramer, director of BU Art Galleries. Together, they create interactive, hands-on learning experiences that help foster visual thinking strategies that get young doctors to explore questions like, “What do you see? What do you see that makes you say that?” Yadavalli says. “There’s no right or wrong here. But it is important to understand why we’re thinking the way we’re thinking.”