What is Medical Improv?
Medical Improv is an emerging field in which the principles and training techniques of improvisational theater are used to improve cognition, communication, and teamwork in the field of medicine.
Medicine, like theater, is both an art form and a skill set. The practice of medicine demands exceptional communicative, cognitive, and interpersonal skills in order to improvise appropriate responses to unpredictable situations while interacting with a wide variety of individuals. Unfortunately, documented shortcomings in medical errors, teamwork, information transfer, and patient satisfaction indicate that there is significant room for improvement in communication skill training for clinicians.
Improvisational theater skills have a surprising and substantial overlap with skills required of clinicians. Improv is a genre of performance art grounded in principles of spontaneity, adaptability, collaboration, and skilled listening. Improv actors develop these skills by participating in specialized training methods that have been refined over the last century. “Improv” is not synonymous with “comedy,” but the fundamental principles of improv (spontaneity and honesty) can naturally lead to humor. That’s what makes medical improv “serious play”—the method is fun, but the goals are serious.
What turns “improv” into “medical improv” is the careful selection and adaptation of improvisational theater principles and exercises to match medical goals and skills, followed by targeted discussion that ties improv to the medical environment. Improv is performed by actors on stage for the purpose of entertainment; medical improv is performed by clinicians in the workplace for the purpose of patient care.
Improvisational theater’s successful training structure could contribute to filling a current curricular deficit in clinician communication skills education. As the field of medical improv develops, its curricula and methods will evolve to address the unique educational needs of individuals in the field of medicine.
About us
Katie Watson, JD is an Associate Professor at Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, where she is an award-winning teacher of medical humanities, bioethics, and constitutional law. In 2002 Professor Watson integrated her expertise in medicine and improv to create a 10-hour improv course for Feinberg medical students, which she’s been teaching as a selective ever since. (She began studying and performing improv in 1997, and she was faculty at Chicago’s Second City Training Center 2008-15.) In 2011 Professor Watson originated the term “medical improv” in her Academic Medicine article about her work, and in 2013 she taught the nation’s first Medical Improv Train-the-Trainer Workshop. Her novel communications curriculum is now taught in medical schools and other health care training settings across the country, it was featured in the AAMC’s 2020 publication “The Fundamental Role of the Arts and Humanities in Medical Education,” and Professor Watson has presented keynote lectures, grand rounds, and workshops on medical improv for trainees and clinicians at medical schools, hospitals, and conferences across the country.
Contact: k-watson@northwestern.edu | More info: Faculty Profile
Belinda Fu, MD, (@theImprovDoc) is a family physician, medical educator, and performing artist. She is Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Washington (UW) School of Medicine, and Founder & Director of The Mayutica Institute, an education & training organization. Dr. Fu has taught undergraduates, medical students, residents, faculty, and practicing clinicians since 1998, at Stanford, UW, and as an invited teacher for institutions across the country. She is recognized for her outstanding public speaking, teaching, and facilitation skills, and for her innovative approaches to medical education, faculty development, physician wellness, communication, and applied improvisation. Belinda has studied, performed, and taught improv since 2007, and co-organized the first Medical Improv Train-the-Trainer Workshop in 2013. She is an ensemble member of Seattle’s Unexpected Productions, and performs regularly with multiple improv groups in the Pacific Northwest. She has presented on medical improv for organizations such as the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), Sociedad Española de Medicine de Familia y Comunitaria, Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), American Academy of Pediatrics, National Society of Genetic Counselors, Association of Surgical Educators, Association of Standardized Patient Educators, Society of Teachers in Family Medicine (STFM), Cleveland Clinic, Kaiser Permanente, Providence Health & Services, University of British Columbia, University of Minnesota, University of Nebraska, and the California, Texas, Washington, and Uniformed Services Academies of Family Physicians.
Contact: belinda@improvdoc.org | Web: belindafu.com