One person who followed Anders Palm’s work on getting medical humanities on the course map is the honorary doctor and philanthropist Birgit Rausing, PhD. In 2017, she ensured that medical humanities received considerable start-up capital to enable the continuation of the much-appreciated course activity on the medical degree programme.
In autumn 2020, the news broke: the Birgit Rausing Foundation was donating SEK 76 million to medical humanities at Lund University’s Faculty of Medicine. The endowment became the start-up capital for our new knowledge centre tasked with developing and profiling medical humanities in education, research and external engagement, within and beyond Lund University. Yes, you guessed it: Birgit Rausing Centre for Medical Humanities.
In an interview, Birgit Rausing described her thoughts:
”Inspired by the activities initiated and developed by professor of comparative literature Anders Palm, I have long held a desire to promote the significance of the humanities in healthcare. Now, more than in the past, many people have realised how important it is to understand the connection between the humanities and medical science and practice, so as to highlight their societal benefit. By setting up a foundation with the aim of supporting this knowledge centre, I wish to help to illustrate the role humanities have to play to enable healthcare to see the whole person in its encounter with and treatment of patients.”
The foundation is very much a part of our work, since representatives of the foundation are on our board. We frequently consult the initial ideas (compiled in a long and well written memo) leading to the generous donation.