You are co-leader of the Biomedical Humanities initiative. How did it come about ?

Claire Crignon : It is part of a long tradition of exchange between, on the one hand, the disciplines of the 'humanities' (philosophy, literature, sociology, cultural anthropology, history and history of art) and, on the other hand, medicine, understood, according to Georges Canguilhem, as an 'art at the crossroads of several sciences' (anatomy, physiology, biology and chemistry).

The result of an interdisciplinary approach initiated more than four years ago by the three faculties of Sorbonne University, it first took shape around trans-disciplinary training in the field of health (innovation and health minor). This project is now reinforced by the possibility for students from the Faculty of Arts of accessing medical studies. It has also structured itself around research, in particular within the Curamus integrated cancer research site (Siric) led by Marc Sanson and which started in 2018.

What are the challenges of the initiative in terms of training ?

C. C. : One of the challenges of this initiative is to train the student community according to an interdisciplinary approach with a strong practical and experimental dimension. In the humanities and social sciences (SHS), students are sometimes willing to start from the field in order to raise questions or critically examine concepts. As for those who are studying medicine, they often feel the need to reflect on their practice.  

It is in this context that I proposed the creation of a master's degree in bio-medical humanities supported by the Philosophy Department of the Faculty of Arts. Through this master's degree, medical students will be able to train in SHS. Reciprocally, the student community of the Faculty of Arts will be able to do internships in the hospital and feed its reflection from observation and fieldwork. This training is also in line with the growing trend to integrate SHS into medical studies, with the Pass (Specific Health Access Course) and Las (Health Access Licence) programmes.

What are its research challenges ?

C. C. : The aim is to create a research community in which real dialogue can take place between science, medicine and SHS. A dialogue that is not just a way of subcontracting to the SHS the task of caring for patients and the well-being of carers. But a dialogue that leads to the questioning of practices, concepts or terms that are fuzzy and imposed in day to day language. Without giving the SHS an exalted position in relation to medicine, it is a question of using field observation as a means of questioning and reworking theoretical reflection.

Our approach is part of a long time span from Antiquity to the present day. It is not limited to addressing the issues from an ethical point of view, but includes other approaches such as the history and philosophy of medicine and art, classical and modern literature, sociology and anthropology, and information and communication sciences, which are particularly useful for deciphering the dissemination of health-related information and fake news via the media and social networks.

We are also concerned with building collaborations with other initiatives or research institutes, such as the Ancient Sciences Initiative or the Institute for Environmental Transition. Such collaboration would, for example, make it possible to articulate questions such as the relationship between the environment and health, already present in ancient texts and revisited in modern times through the notions of unhealthy are or the transmission of diseases.

Can you give us some examples of the application of this research ?

C. C. : The current health crisis is a textbook case for our interdisciplinary thinking. One of our projects is to compare the perception of this crisis between different European countries according to cultures, traditions, different care systems and the relationship with the environment.

Other projects are underway: we are preparing a book with photographs from the Dupuytren pathology collection. This scientific and medical heritage of the university means it is uniquely placed to reflect on exchanges between medical sciences, art, literature, anthropology and philosophy.

We also question current forms of participation in health care by looking at the role played by patients. In this framework, we have started a collaboration with the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle on the methods and tools of participatory science.

How is the link between medicine and the humanities and social sciences forged on a daily basis within the initiative ? 

C. C. : The dialogue between SHS and medicine needs time. While doctors work in a short time frame, that of medical emergencies, we in SHS work over long periods. To have something to say about medical practices, you have to go to the wards, meet the patients, patient organisations and teams, and try to understand the scientific issues of their research programmes.

In the case of Siric Curamus, where biomedical humanities are a transversal research axis, a real acculturation work has been carried out. Alongside the doctors, the SHS researchers visited hospital wards to conduct interviews with nursing staff and patients (e.g. on the question of the place of emotions in the therapeutic relationship).

Within this interdisciplinary group, we have also started to set up a "medical humanities" café, with the intention of creating a space for discussion in the hospital between carers, patients and researchers in science & engineering, medicine and social sciences.