Arts and Humanities in Health Profession Education Perspectives from South and Southeast Asia

Saroj Jayasinghe is an Emeritus Professor of Medicine at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, and a practicing clinician and consultant physician. He was appointed the founder Head of the Department of Medical Humanities, University of Colombo, in 2016, the first such department dedicated to the field in Sri Lanka, and perhaps in southern Asia. He has led several initiatives to promote Medical Humanities in Sri Lanka and the wider region. He is the Convener of the Global Network for Health Humanities, which was initiated in Colombo in July 2023, and played a key role in promoting a resolution on Health Humanities in the WHO South-East Asia Region, which was unanimously adopted by the region’s Ministers of Health in October 2025.

P Ravi Shankar is currently a faculty at the IMU Centre for Education, Malaysia. He was one of the pioneers in developing the health humanities in Nepal. He is a researcher with diverse interests and ranked in the top 2% of global ranking in the Stanford University’s “World’s Top 2% Scientists list”. He is an academic editor at PLoS One. He is a member of the Academy of Health Professions Educators and a fellow of the Academy of Medical 

Educators. 

Madhusudan Subedi is a Professor of Health Social Sciences at the Patan Academy of Health Sciences, Nepal. He is the Former Chair of the Department of Community Health Sciences in the School of Medicine and the School of Public Health. He is one of the founding faculty who teaches ‘Humanities in Medicine, Nursing and Public Health’ in Nepal. Prof. Subedi has published over 150 academic articles and authored/edited 6 books.  His scholarship focuses on systemic barriers on health equity and social transformations.