How theatre can improve human connection in medicine
March 31st, 2026
Canada
This article focuses on the theater and its impact on community connection and social/mental health.
Posted byBarak Reibman
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Abstract/Description
Medicine has always required both technical expertise and sound judgment.
But the heart of the work is often less easily measured, says Dr. Glen Bandiera, an emergency physician at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto.
It’s the human connection formed in exam rooms and at hospital bedsides every day, he says, and the ability to form them in an increasingly complex, high-pressure health-care system matters more than ever.
That’s where the Theatre of Medicine comes in. Co-created by the Shaw Festival and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, it’s an accredited continuing professional development skills course for physicians that offers a structured way to train and upskill for this reality.
“The skills that artists are taught are highly relevant for physicians – particularly the ability to empathize and relate to another individual in a very short period of time,” says Dr. Bandiera, a co-ordinator of the program who also formerly served as executive director at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.
But the heart of the work is often less easily measured, says Dr. Glen Bandiera, an emergency physician at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto.
It’s the human connection formed in exam rooms and at hospital bedsides every day, he says, and the ability to form them in an increasingly complex, high-pressure health-care system matters more than ever.
That’s where the Theatre of Medicine comes in. Co-created by the Shaw Festival and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, it’s an accredited continuing professional development skills course for physicians that offers a structured way to train and upskill for this reality.
“The skills that artists are taught are highly relevant for physicians – particularly the ability to empathize and relate to another individual in a very short period of time,” says Dr. Bandiera, a co-ordinator of the program who also formerly served as executive director at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.