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Background: In this presentation, I discuss Convalescence (2024), an immersive installation by American artist Pepón Osorio inspired by his cancer diagnosis and treatment. Staged at an academic medical center in Philadelphia, the installation simulated a hospital ward where five patients—represented on video monitors displayed on adorned hospital beds—recounted traumatic medical experiences, missed diagnoses, and biased clinician interactions.

Objectives: Based on real stories of Latinx and Black Philadelphians who confided in Osorio, Convalescence offered pointed critique of the U.S. healthcare system and highlighted patients’ rage and despair. As the installation’s project director, I integrated Osorio’s institutional critique into the university’s medical humanities program. I consider how Convalescence departed from art typically found in medical environments and radically reimagined the teaching hospital as a space of medical education.

Methods: My account of the three-month installation interweaves student reflections, interviews with project participants, and public visitor feedback.

Results: Initial analysis of 22 reflections revealed students developing a more holistic, culturally humble, and equity-focused approach to medicine that values both scientific excellence and deep human connection. However, articulation of these values also suggests an ongoing need to be supported with tools and opportunities for maintaining such commitments across career stages in medical practice.

Conclusion: Emphasizing the art installation’s transformative potential as a pedagogical model, I consider challenges that institutional critique faces given systemic complexity and inertia, and how such projects can contribute to transformation as artwork and pedagogical strategy.