The presence of humanities in the curricula of medical students in Italy and Spain

Introduction: There is an increasing interest in the usefulness of humanities to improve the training of medical students. In this article, an analysis is made of the presence of humanities subjects in medical curricula of Italy and Spain. Material and methods: A review of the curricula of the Bachelor in Medicine in Italian and Spanish universities that offered this degree was carried out by using the information available on the institutional websites. Information was collected as regards the type of subjects and the academic characteristics of the more frequently included subjects. Results: A total of 42 Italian and 39 Spanish universities were examined. All of them included at least one subject with humanities contents. The most frequently included were, History (91%), Philosophy (81%), Anthropology (28%), and Literature (12%). Significant differences were seen between the countries regarding the presence of some subjects and their academic characteris- tics. The reduced number of ECTS credits and the lack of academic independence of humanities content were common features. Discussion: Humanities contents, mainly History of Medicine and Bioethics were present in most medical curricula of Italian and Spanish universities. However, their relative importance was considered to be low, given the ECTS credits and presence as independent subjects. Some actions are recommended to improve the presence of humanities in medical studies in Italy and Spain.