From Policy to Practice: Implementing the WHO SEARO Health Humanities Resolution in Undergraduate Medical Curricula

This paper examines the landmark WHO SEARO resolution, led by Sri Lanka, mandating the integration of health humanities into health professional education, training, and service delivery. The resolution, adopted at the Regional Committee Meeting in Colombo in October 2025,  addresses the decline of humane characteristics like empathy and compassion in trainees, a deficit exacerbated by the increasing replacement of human interactions with artificial intelligence and technology. The resolution seeks to rebalance the bio-medical focus in curricula by embedding arts, literature, and narratives as teaching and learning strategies to cultivate ethical, culturally aware practitioners aligned with holistic health principles and social determinants of health. This paper proposes practical, multi-level strategies for implementation at the institutional and national level. It outlines prerequisites, including faculty development and formal mandates, followed by curriculum development using models like the prism approach. The paper outlines diverse methods from the arts, such as narrative writing, appreciation of literature, visual thinking strategies, forum theatre, and trigger films, which could be used as educational tools. Robust assessment through portfolios and qualitative feedback is emphasized, alongside securing administrative support. Nationally, it advocates for regulatory body engagement to mandate competencies, dedicated funding, and hub-and-spoke models of excellence. The resolution offers a critical policy tool to recalibrate health systems, and success requires coherent action across individual institutions, national regulators, and ministries to embed humanistic care as a foundational pillar of health professional education.