The Department of Humanities, created at the founding of The Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, was functioning when the first students were admitted in 1967. As the first department of its kind at any medical school, the Department had to develop its objectives, curriculum and faculty without guidelines or models. There were no existing "fields" of medical humanities or bioethics to call upon in designing this pioneering effort in medical education.

The introduction of a formal humanities curriculum for medical students was largely a response to new knowledge and technology in the biomedical sciences. While these advances brought new power and benefits to medicine, they created problems as well. There is continuing concern that medical technology, and the need to keep abreast of current scientific developments, threatens to preempt medicine’s traditional concern for human values.