Susan MacDonald
Community Correspondent

A new program created by the Shaw Festival and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada is teaching aspiring health-care professionals how to use skills and tools in the performing arts in their day-to-day interactions with patients — to offer better care.

Alexis Milligan, the Shaw Festival’s movement director, designed the program, which drew participants from out of town to Niagara-on-the-Lake during the last weekend in September.

“From the moment a doctor’s hand goes on the handle of the door to meet a patient, every gesture, every action, every word, every way that they engage can affect how a patient perceives their own sense of well-being,” Milligan said.

The 15-hour course had sessions on topics such as shared decision-making, whole-person communication, refections on practice and commitment to action.

The goal is to improve a physician’s professional interpersonal skills and communication.

The program, called “Theatre of Medicine,” is a continued professional development credit program under the Royal College’s maintenance of certification requirements.

It has also been approved for accreditation by the Temerty Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto and aligns with its emerging quality improvement guidelines, which go beyond patient simulation and role play — two methods used in training physicians — to offer tools that can make an immediate, practical difference for medical professionals.

Dr. Amanda Webster, a member of the scientific planning committee for Theatre of Medicine, says integrating the arts into medical training can foster empathy, creativity and holistic care.

“The arts are not just a reflection of society but a fundamental force that shapes and heals it,” she said.

“Enhancing human connections is at the heart of the program.”  

Presenters included Milligan from the Shaw, Dr. Michael A.S. Jewett, professor of surgery (urology) at University of Toronto and Dr. Glen Bandiera, executive director of standards and assessment at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.

Participants were also able to take part in a related conservation as part of the Shaw Festival’s discussion series, “The Art of Ideas,” with guest speaker Dr. Penelope Rampersad, cardiologist and assistant professor of medicine at New York University Langone.  

Pragna Desai, the Shaw’s director of community engagement and outreach, says this program is the culmination of five years of development and planning.

“We believe the training the physicians receive will open new avenues of enhanced communication between the health-care professional and patient,” she said.

Organizers were buoyed by the positive feedback from participants at the inaugural “Theatre of Medicine.”

Plans are underway to host more sessions in the future at the Shaw.

The second part of “Theatre of Medicine,” entitled “Bedside Manner Returns” is scheduled for next September.