As today's technologies of medical science become more complex and demanding, so do the larger ethical, religious, and other humanistic issues that the medical professions face. On one hand, health care professionals struggle to accommodate and apply the explosion of new clinical knowledge. At the same time they must incorporate into day-to-day practice an awareness of how health care fits into and affects the lives of the people they care for.

The Center for Literature, Medicine, and the Health Care Professions exists to meet this need. The mission of the Center is, through literary works, to examine thoroughly questions of human values in health care contexts - and to do so within clinical settings, medical and other health professional schools, and the liberal arts environment. The unique collaboration between Hiram College and the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine (NEOUCOM) allows the Center for Literature, Medicine, and the Health Care Professions to draw upon the special strengths of both a private liberal arts college and a state university-affiliated medical school.

What distinguishes the Center from conventional medical ethics programs are its special emphases:

• Using literary works to raise humanities issues in medical settings;
• Developing techniques for teaching literary works in a variety of health care environments, from medical schools to nursing homes;
• Using readers' theater as a method for understanding different perspectives of patients, families and health care professionals; and
• Applying narrative theory and practice to health care interactions; for example, the patient as story, the doctor as reader.

The Center is housed in Mahan House, a handsome Greek revival building on the Hiram College campus. It is named in honor of Dr. Alfred Catlin Mahan and his wife, Marian Reimann Mahan, who gave generously toward its renovation.