The Doctor and Patient: Gathering the whole story elective is a one-week, skills oriented course. The course is designed to help students enhance the humanization of medicine in their practice by utilizing study of the arts. Narratives are a constant in medicine, used to assess patient problems, educate other physicians, critically analyze situations, and as a means of personal expression. The generalization of patients as bodies can undermine our interpretation of any critical information a patients' narrative may hold. In addition, acceptance into residency programs is dependent upon a compelling written personal statement. In this elective, students will utilize active learning activities to improve their communication, observation, empathy, critical thinking, and resiliency skills - the goal is to enhance student's practice of medicine and to help them write an effective and impactful personal statement. Activities include identifying fine details in artwork to promote observation skills - this mimics attention-to-detail that is requisite for proper physical examinations. Students will learn about processes of constructing captivating narratives, various forms of writing, and the use of metaphors in medicine. Reflective writing exercises will be utilized to develop critical thinking, empathy, and demonstrate tools useful for self- resiliency. The course will also introduce basic computational techniques to help identify mental health conditions that the patient may not explicitly present. Students will produce several writing samples which will undergo sentiment analysis to identify emotionality present in their language use. The goal is to help students grasp how language usage can be assessed to improve their communication skills thereby not only enhancing their clinical practice but also helping them succeed in future endeavors. The elective is design to be interactive and engaging, with active participation from all students.Students will need to prepare before class by completing assigned readings and individual activities (or tasks) in order to participate in class. The first day of the elective will discuss the mechanics of the course, expectations, and general overview of the topic. Subsequent days will include critical observation of a student-selected piece of art in the community followed by a written description; careful reading and analysis of narrative works focused on clinical encounters; poetry or prose workshop; and computational narrative analysis of written samples. Students will complete baseline and summative assessments on empathy and observation, to determine if these skills improved during the course. Students will finish the elective with several written pieces designed to improve their written communication skills.