"Medical improv teaches you to do unscripted, collaborative storytelling to the best of your capacity."

On the series premiere of Doctor+, hosts Tseganesh and David speak with Dr. Ankit Mehta about medical improv, narrative medicine, and graphic medicine.

About the guest:

Ankit Mehta is a hospitalist with HealthPartners and an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Minnesota (UMN). He is certified in CHEST/Society of Hospital Medicine POCUS (Point of Care Ultrasound). He has a keen interest in the intersection of arts, humanities, and medicine. He co-created a one-day communication and empathy course, “CRAVE” (Communication, Resilience, Authenticity, Vulnerability, and Empathy) at HealthPartners for practicing clinicians. He also directs a “medical improv” course, an adaptation of improvisation principles in healthcare context to improve communication, empathy, teamwork and resiliency. He currently chairs the research committee for the National Medical Improv Collaborative (MIC) group. He is a member of the Editorial Review Board for the Journal of Patient Experience. He has been a part of the planning committee as creative arts/narrative medicine chair for the International Conference on Communication in Healthcare (ICCH) in 2021 and 2023. He has served on the Medical Executive Committee at Regions Hospital (St. Paul, MN) and the Patient Experience Council.

Dr. Mehta is passionate about graphic medicine as a powerful tool in medical education to teach self-reflection and empathy with easy accessibility and poignancy. His graphic works have been published in various journals (including JAMA and Annals of Internal Medicine), book illustrations/cover designs and magazines. His graphic story (in collaboration with Twin Cities PBS and UMN Medical School) was part of an Emmy® winning documentary “Speaking About Race”. He is also actively engaged in global health initiatives, and has worked with International Organization for Migration (IOM) to support trainings of panel physicians.

For more examples of Dr. Mehta's work, click here.

Support for Doctor+ has been provided by the American College of Physicians. Doctor+ is hosted by Dr. David Hilden and Dr. Tseganesh Selameab and is produced by Julie Censullo.

For more information, visit doctorpluspodcast.com.