Wilkinson JE. Fam Med. 2006 Nov-Dec;38(10):702-4. The Department of Family Medicine at Boston University implemented a writing elective for third and fourth year medical students that “offers experience in narrative medicine, serves as a teaching tool for both professionalism and cultural competency, and is a distance/Internet learning experience.” Narrative medicine is defined as “medicine practiced with the narrative competency to recognize, interpret, and be moved to action by the predicaments of others.” Their course is a semester-long (14-week) course that students take alongside clinical clerkships and electives. All the discussion takes place in an online forum. With seven 2-week blocks, students examine various themes such as death and dying, cross-cultural medicine, the transforma