Development of a Medical Humanities Course Based on Design Thinking and Medical Students’ Perceptions

Amid the increasing interest in medical humanities education, this study developed a medical humanities course that utilized design thinking to foster creative thinking, problem-solving, and collaboration skills that pre-medical students should possess. The course’s efficacy was assessed by evaluating improvements in core design thinking skills. The present study was conducted among 83 first-year medical students after planning and implementing a design thinking course. The reflection journals written by students along the course of the class were examined using the template analysis technique to evaluate the effectiveness of the class. The study’s primary findings showed the successful development of step-by-step medical humanities education content utilizing design thinking and its practical implementation in a class. Moreover, the course improved students’ core design thinking skills effectively, and in a balanced way. These results illustrate the effective application of design thinking in medical school through a medical humanities course. These findings indicate that a medical humanities course can help medical students showcase their abilities to collaborate and solve problems in the real world. This paper suggests the need for further research to develop a curriculum that integrates design thinking and investigate the relationship between medical students’ core competencies and design thinking-based courses.