Drs. Lawrence F. Kienle M.D. and Jane Witmer Kienle, M.D.
The Doctors Kienle Center for Humanistic Medicine was established in 1985, through the generosity of the late Dr. Lawrence F. Kienle and the Dr. Jane Witmer Kienle, to encourage and enhance compassionate medical care. Both Doctors Kienle believed that medical care could be empathic as well as technically excellent, through emphasizing each patient’s individual needs.
The Center supports projects and programs that aim to render the delivery of health care more humane, both locally and nationally. The Doctors Kienle Center is part of the Department of Humanities at Penn state College of Medicine: its work has flourished with the support of many departments within Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical center and College of Medicine.
“We all stand to benefit if the physician-patient relationship becomes a partnership again. Technology, caring, and compassion can be combined, but you must search your soul. As Oliver Wendell Holmes once stated, ‘It is the Physician’s privilege to cure, seldom; to relieve, often; to comfort, always.’”
~ Dr. Jane Witmer
The Doctors Kienle Collection
A special collection of books and media concerning humanistic medical practice is located in the College of Medicine’s George T. Harrell Library.