People have asked me why have I started this project?

There are a few considerations that allowed this project to be brought to light.

First of all despite it is an EU state the general public`s perception about Romania in the UK is misleading as the headlines usually cover topics such as migrants and cheap labour.  This casts us in a shadow as usually the members of public are not acquainted with Romanian cultural background. Consequently less is known about our artistic and cultural heritage. From Brancusi to Luchian and Brancusi and now to doctor artists we have a great deal to be proud of and to show the rest of the world.

Secondly I desired to give the opportunity to Romanian doctors that love art to show their work and express themselves freely.  In addition there was the utter need of promoting the Romanian culture and true values within the medical professionals and British public. Future editions are to bring a cultural unity and artistical blend between doctor-artists and art professionals both British and Romanian.

I thought that the best way that suits every single doctor artist is to create a department within the Romanian Medical Society UK (www.smruk.org) that binds both cultures through art. It is important to be known and seen therefore we have organised the SMRUK ART GALLERY, as each doctor-artist has their own way, style and themes that makes him or her unique.  The art gallery encompasses a multitude of ways of expression.

The question asked is what is the relationship between medicine and art.  “Medicine is itself an art.” as Hipocrates stated. It is an art of doing, fabricating and creating and if that is so, it must employ the finest tools available — not just the finest in science and craftsmanship , but the finest in the knowledge, skills, perfection  and character of the doctor. This is the embodiment of creation. Medicine, like art, is a calling and is the highest form a doctor might create a splendour.

In 2005 in the USA at Boston University Of Medicine, an experiment took place that caught the attention of  medical educational system.  Dr. Joel Katz and Dr. Shah Khoshbin started a program of elective art classes for medical students and doctors. Dr. Khoshbin, who had a background in art said art classes seem to help train students in what he called “visual literacy.”

Quite often, when students miss a diagnosis, they tell their tutors they didn’t look,” Dr. Khoshbin said. “We trained students to become literate in talking to patients but we didn’t have a way to make them be visually literate,” until this course was developed.

The course was designed and taught by two art educators, who introduced students and delegates to art using the resources of the nearby Boston Museum of Fine Arts to test their analytical and visual skills.

Even modern art can help students improve their powers of observation and perception.

“Not only how to look at body and face but to look at patterns. The work of Jackson Pollock has no face and no body, so what is important is pattern recognition,” he said. Pattern recognition teaches students to observe more about for example, a rash, than just the colour of the skin.

The result is a group of doctors who are more confident in their own powers of observation and thus more confident in their own skills of diagnosis.  CBS cited their findings and concluded:  Art classes improve diagnostic skills of medical students and doctors.

Returning to the previous question What has medicine and art in common? Now the answer is simple and clear: Everything.