Davidson's Medical Humanities Program promotes an interdisciplinary understanding of health and health care. It enables students to appreciate the strengths and limits of the natural sciences, social sciences and humanities as they seek to explain and to achieve a measure of control over disease, illness and suffering. The concentration helps students to grasp how legal, economic, and political institutions influence the production, distribution and delivery of health care services, provides students with a foundation in epidemiological principles, and teaches them how to evaluate and apply the principles of scientific integrity.

Medical Humanities courses emphasize the role ethical values play in defining problems as "medical," worth of scientific study, calling for mobilization of social as well as individual resources. The courses help students to develop the analytical skills which permit clear thinking and writing about the complex tradeoffs involved in developing, using and paying for health care.

The Davidson/CMC Connection In 1990, Davidson College and the Carolinas Medical Center joined in a formal agreement "to cooperate and share resources toward the common betterment of health care, the education and training of physicians and improved understanding of the relationship between medicine and society." Under the auspices of this agreement, Davidson students enjoy access to an expanded range of educational opportunities that only a large teaching hospital can provide.