Drawing and observation for physicians: o the challenge of teaching medical students how to draw

Drawing and observation for doctors is a course of drawing specially created for medicine and dentistry students at the University of Porto. This course challenges students to recognize the importance of drawing and its visual language as a learning tool to support their academic training. Considering that teaching within medicine context is based on the observation of the human body and the images that represent it, the practice of drawing can become useful not only in understanding anatomy but also as an important tool for communication between doctors and patients. The possibility of understanding and communicating through their images helps to consolidate and complement cognitive and communication skills relevant to their areas of training. The development of this course is part of the research project DRAWinU.