Arts-Based Medical Education in South Korean Medical Schools: A Descriptive Review

This descriptive review maps the current status, modalities, and educational outcomes of arts-based medical education (ABME) in South Korean medical schools. We searched six international and domestic databases (PubMed, KoreaMed, KMBASE, KCI, RISS, and DBpia) through June 2026 and identified 44 studies involving Korean medical students that integrated the arts and humanities. Original articles accounted for 47.7% of the studies (n=21), followed by review articles (n=18; 40.9%) and editorials, opinions, or book reviews (n=5; 11.4%). Among the 31 studies classified by artistic modality, narrative medicine and reflective writing were the most common (n=10), followed by film and cinema (n=8), visual arts (n=3), theater (n=2), design thinking or debate (n=2), Korean traditional music (n=1), integrated arts (n=1), and four studies in which the primary analytical unit was not a specific medium. Reported outcomes focused on empathy, professional identity formation, narrative competence, communication, critical thinking, and attitudes toward death and dying, but these outcomes were assessed mainly through self-report instruments and qualitative essays at Kirkpatrick level 2. Within this small but growing body of work, Korean ABME remains concentrated in narrative and reflective writing, and current implementations are largely confined to brief, exposure-level encounters that limit the depth of effect the arts can provide. Because large-scale randomized trials may not be the most feasible or appropriate primary route for developing this field, the more pressing task is to reposition arts-based learning from a supplementary elective to a core curricular component, so that the relational, narrative, and reflective competencies intrinsic to medicine as a human encounter are deliberately cultivated across the integrated six-year curriculum.