Murmurs magazine
Murmurs Magazine, a student initiative, aims to re-imagine the clinical practice of medicine and revisit the humanistic and spiritual elements of healing. It was started in 2012 as an avenue for medical student and resident artists from across Canada to publish literary and visual works of art exploring the human side of medicine. In subsequent years, and with the strong support of the University of Ottawa Faculty of Medicine, the magazine has produced three in-print editions, curated an active online forum and been presented at several national conferences. This past year, the magazine celebrated a burgeoning partnership between Ottawa and Shanghai with its third edition entitled ‘East meets West’. The Murmurs team hopes to continue a tradition of publishing creative medical pieces for many years to come.
Murmurs team in Ottawa: Faculty of Medicine Undergraduate Medical Education students Agata Dzwonek, Andrea Zumrova, AiLi Wang, Elizabeth Morrison.
Murmurs team in Shanghai: Mingjun Gu, Shengming Wang, Yirui Shen, Yuanyuan Zou.
A web link and ISBN library publication number are being created by Talia Chung and the University of Ottawa Library.
Annual medical student art show and artists’ book
The annual Medical Student Art Show, organized by the Arts in Medicine Interest Group (AIM), is an event established for medical students of all years to express their creativity and artistic talents. The Art Show allows medical students to use visual arts to communicate the life experiences and knowledge that they have gained during their medical school journey and beyond.
In 2016, the theme of the art show was “Discovery” and its link to medicine. Discovery is experienced by the human life in various forms. Each individual engages in a journey of self-discovery every day as they try to identify and understand themselves. We often ask ourselves, “who are we? What is our purpose in life? What defines us? What makes us unique?”
Discovery is also the cornerstone of medicine. Medicine is an ever-changing field and new discoveries are constantly being made through the development of better medications and higher standards of patient care. As medical students, we learn to engage in these new discoveries as we strive to provide a higher quality of care to our patients and embark on our path to becoming competent and well-rounded physicians.
The AIM editorial board for 2015-16 consists of the following University of Ottawa Faculty of Medicine Undergraduate Medical Education students: Melissa Maltez, Tetyana Maniuk, Nikhat Nawar and AiLi Wang.
Arts-in-Medicine (AIM)
AIM is an interest group for uOttawa medical students to show off their artistic talents and creativity through participation in fun events such as MedShow, coffee houses, workshops, art shows and Murmurs Magazine. Furthermore, students are able to share their art skills and knowledge with others and explore the connection between the arts and medicine. The students have put together am unofficial Facebook page of their own, centred on arts in medicine.