Editors’ Note: This feature appears as it was published in the summer 2021 edition of UT Dallas Magazine. Titles or faculty members listed may have changed since that time.
With a leadership gift to UT Dallas’ Center for Values in Medicine, Science, and Technology, a local doctor and his wife hope to encourage students to focus on the human side of medicine.
Dr. Marvin Stone, chief emeritus of hematology and oncology at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas and a clinical professor in the UT Dallas School of Arts and Humanities (A&H), along with his wife, Kathy, have created the Marvin and Kathleen Stone Distinguished Professorship of Humanities in Medicine and Science and the Marvin and Kathleen Stone Scholarship/Fellowship. The endowments are intended to grow the impact of the Center for Values as it relates to how values, culture and humanities interact with medicine and science.
“Medical students and physicians tend not to have enough humanities in their education, but I believe the art of medicine is just as important as the science of medicine,” said Stone, “so I’ve been interested in trying to further humanities in medicine, in medical school and at the University.”
The professorship will support a tenured professor who focuses on the intersection of values and the humanities with medicine and science. Likewise, the scholarship fund will assist students with similar interests.
The Center for Values, which is part of A&H, is focused on recognizing the ways that ethics, values and culture interact with medicine, science and technology, with the goal of pursuing relevant research.
“Coming up through college and medical school, there seemed to be a skewed emphasis on science at the expense of humanities. I didn’t think it was balanced appropriately — with enough attention to the humane aspect of medicine and illness. That’s why I am so interested in this topic,” Stone said.
Stone was on the faculty at UT Southwestern Medical Center for years and later served as the first chief of oncology and director of Baylor’s Charles A. Sammons Cancer Center.
— Phil Roth
