At the Frick Collection, Weill Cornell students Susan Herzlinger and Eric Gordon discuss features of portrait photographs with Dr. Charles Bardes (standing).
On Jan. 2, The New York Times' "Science Times" section took readers to the elegant interior of the Frick Collection for a glimpse of a collaborative educational program inaugurated last year for Weill Cornell medical students. In the program, called "The Art of Observation: Weill Cornell Medical College and the Frick Collection," a group of Weill Cornell students were encouraged to tell what they could discern from several paintings in the collection and from some color photos of actual patients, under the guidance of Drs. Leonard Meiselas, adjunct clinical professor of medicine; Charles L. Bardes, associate dean for admissions and associate professor of clinical medicine; and Debra Gillers, associate dean for academic affairs.
"We have a very indirect goal—to make doctors better observers," said Amy Herman, the Collection's director of education. By learning to pick up clues from classic portraiture, the students may become more sensitive and more aware in their meetings with patients. "Already I've had students tell me that when they walk into a hospital room they don't go right for the chart," Ms. Herman said.