Table 1.

Main characteristics of the VTS intervention

• The VTS intervention consisted of a single 90-min class within the Medical Humanities mandatory course. This class repeated separately in two different but consecutive cohorts of first-year students within our graduate program for medical students.

• In both years, the class took place roughly in the beginning of the second semester, after students had already completed their Gross Anatomy course, as well as the Public Health course and a basic 3-day module of introduction to medical humanities.

• The Medical Humanities mandatory course runs throughout the two pre-clinical years, consisting of classes in medical ethics, psychology, history of medicine sociology and art (in addition to the VTS intervention).

• The VTS intervention included 5 images, mainly images from the modern era, depicting situations in which sick, dying or deceased patients were involved (e.g. “The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp by Rembrandt [1632]”, “The Doctor” by Sir Luke Fildes, [1891], “Death in the Sickroom” by Edvard Munch [1894], etc.)

• Before displaying the images, the lecturer gave a brief explanation regarding the idea of VTS and its application in other medical schools (approx. 15 min).

• Each image was displayed on a big screen. All images were in color.

• Following the primary recommendation regarding the questions that should be asked during VTS sessions, we followed the three-question scheme suggested in the literature regarding VTS (see reference no. 33), about which we elaborate below.

• Students were initially presented with the first question: what was going on in the displayed image.

• Students were then given 5 min to look, examine and reflect about each image with their friends.

• Afterwards, the students were asked to share aloud their thoughts about what was going on in the art image with the lecturer and their classmates.

• For each depiction offered by a student regarding the displayed image, the lecturer asked a second question, namely, “what do you see [in the image] that make you think that?” Other students were encouraged to join in the discussion as well.

• Finally, the lecturer also encouraged the students to examine whether they could spot further interesting details in the picture, thereby following the third recommended question for VTS sessions.

• The open discussion regarding each image lasted approximately 15 min.