This paper presents the development of an academic discipline in Medical Humanities. The goal was to analyse both practical and conceptual contributions from humanistic knowledge toward health care. The discipline was organised in four inter-related modules corresponding to particular areas of humanistic knowledge: philosophy, history, socio-anthropology and the psychodynamics of a medical consultation. The text points out the different pedagogic and didactic strategies used, the programmatic content of each module and their bridge-overs, and the impacts on students, lecturers and the actual design of the discipline. The discipline, according to the opinion of lecturers and students, was found to be capable of developing not only specific content but also interrelated content between modules. After the first class had completed the course, some themes and methods were reformulated, but the After the first time, some reorientation of themes and methods were done, but the modular strategy and the choice of specialized researchers as the teacher team were reaffirmed, leading to improvements on knowledge about the concept of health care since a comprehensive perspective in health. The conclusion is that the discipline's design suited the proposed educational goals and reinforces the relevance of humanities to the medical school curricula.
Medical Humanities; Humanization of Assistance; Medical Education
