Articulating Health Humanities in Graphic Narratives by Medical Illustrators

Author(s):  
Lisa Detora

Using a theoretical model of “articulation” gleaned from the rhetoric of health and medicine, this chapter situates graphic narratives by medical illustrators against two strains of health humanities: medical education and humanistic inquiry. It might seem that medical illustration, itself a hybrid discipline that bridges art and medical science, would de facto account for both registers of health humanities, yet the reality is more complex. Ultimately, medical illustrators operate within their own rich traditions. Thus, work like Héloise Chochois’ La Fabrique Des Corps: Des Premièrs Prostéhses à l’Humaine Augmenté (2017) or Kriota Willberg’s The Wandering Uterus (Furor Uterensis) and Contemporary Applications of Ancient Medical Wisdom (2016) present a fertile ground for building an understanding of graphic narrative and medicine that extends beyond the experiences of illness that characterize most current understandings of Graphic Medicine.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren Sinnenberg ◽  
Craig A Umscheid ◽  
Frances S Shofer ◽  
Damien Leri ◽  
Zachary F Meisel

BACKGROUND The use of graphic narratives, defined as stories that use images for narration, is growing in health communication. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to describe the design and implementation of a graphic narrative screensaver (GNS) to communicate a guideline recommendation (ie, avoiding low-value acid suppressive therapy [AST] use in hospital inpatients) and examine the comparative effectiveness of the GNS versus a text-based screensaver (TBS) on clinical practice (ie, low-value AST prescriptions) and clinician recall. METHODS During a 2-year period, the GNS and the TBS were displayed on inpatient clinical workstations. The numbers of new AST prescriptions were examined in the four quarters before, the three quarters during, and the one quarter after screensavers were implemented. Additionally, an electronic survey was sent to resident physicians 1 year after the intervention to assess screensaver recall. RESULTS Designing an aesthetically engaging graphic that could be rapidly understood was critical in the development of the GNS. The odds of receiving an AST prescription on medicine and medicine subspecialty services after the screensavers were implemented were lower for all four quarters (ie, GNS and TBS broadcast together, only TBS broadcast, only GNS broadcast, and no AST screensavers broadcast) compared to the quarter prior to implementation (odds ratio [OR] 0.85, 95% CI 0.78-0.92; OR 0.89, 95% CI 0.82-0.97; OR 0.87, 95% CI 0.80-0.95; and OR 0.81, 95% CI 0.75-0.89, respectively; <i>P</i>&lt;.001 for all comparisons). There were no statistically significant decreases for other high-volume services, such as the surgical services. These declines appear to have begun prior to screensaver implementation. When surveyed about the screensaver content 1 year later, resident physicians recalled both the GNS and TBS (43/70, 61%, vs 54/70, 77%; <i>P</i>=.07) and those who recalled the screensaver were more likely to recall the main message of the GNS compared to the TBS (30/43, 70%, vs 1/54, 2%; <i>P</i>&lt;.001). CONCLUSIONS It is feasible to use a graphic narrative embedded in a broadcast screensaver to communicate a guideline recommendation, but further study is needed to determine the impact of graphic narratives on clinical practice.


2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-229
Author(s):  
Ayelet Kohn ◽  
Rachel Weissbrod

This article deals with Kovner’s graphic narrative Ezekiel’s World (2015) as a case of remediation and hypermediacy. The term ‘remediation’ refers to adaptations which involve the transformation of the original work into another medium. While some adaptations strive to eliminate the marks of the previous medium, others highlight the interplay between different media, resulting in ‘hypermediacy’. The latter approach characterizes Ezekiel’s World due to its unique blend of artistic materials adapted from different media. The author, Michael Kovner, uses his paintings to depict the story of Ezekiel – an imaginary figure based on his father, the poet Abba Kovner who was one of the leaders of the Jewish resistance movement during World War II. While employing the conventions of comics and graphic narratives, the author also makes use of readymade objects such as maps and photos, simulates the works of famous artists and quotes Abba Kovner’s poems. These are indirect ways of confronting the traumas of Holocaust survivors and ‘the second generation’. Dealing with the Holocaust in comics and graphic narratives (as in Spiegelman’s Maus: A Survivor’s Tale, 1986) is no longer an innovation, nor is their use as a means to deal with trauma; what makes this graphic narrative unique is the encounter between the works of the poet and the painter, which combine to create an exceptionally complex work integrating poetry, art and graphic narration.


2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 545-553 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan E.L. Brown ◽  
Angelique N. Dueñas

AbstractA research paradigm, or set of common beliefs about research, should be a key facet of any research project. However, despite its importance, there is a paucity of general understanding in the medical sciences education community regarding what a research paradigm consists of and how to best construct one. With the move within medical sciences education towards greater methodological rigor, it is now more important than ever for all educators to understand simply how to better approach their research via paradigms. In this monograph, a simplified approach to selecting an appropriate research paradigm is outlined. Suggestions are based on broad literature, medical education sources, and the author’s own experiences in solidifying and communicating their research paradigms. By assisting in detailing the philosophical underpinnings of individuals research approaches, this guide aims to help all researchers improve the rigor of their projects and improve upon overall understanding in research communication.


Author(s):  
Allan D. Peterkin ◽  
Anna Skorzewska

Arts and humanities education is widespread in undergraduate but almost nonexistent in postgraduate medical education where it is arguably more helpful. This book fills that gap. It covers a wide range of arts and humanities subjects including film, theatre, narrative, visual art, history, ethics, and social sciences. Each chapter provides not only 1) a literature review of the relevant subject in postgraduate medical education and, where helpful, undergraduate medical education but 2) a theoretical discussion of the subject as it relates to medicine and medical education 3) challenges to implementing arts and humanities programming and 4) appendices with a number of different and relevant resources as well as sample lesson plans. There is a chapter on the use of humanities in interprofessional education, a domain whose importance has recently gained prominence. Finally there are also chapters guiding the medical humanities educator on evaluating the impact of their programs, an ever-present challenge, and on the thorny issue of how to fund programs in medical humanities.


Author(s):  
Monica Chiu ◽  
Jeanette Roan

Asian American graphic narratives typically produce meaning through arrangements of images, words, and sequences, though some forgo words completely and others offer an imagined “before” and “after” within the confines of a single panel. Created by or featuring Asian Americans or Asians in a US or Canadian context, they have appeared in a broad spectrum of formats, including the familiar mainstream genre comics, such as superhero serials from DC or Marvel Comics; comic strips; self-published minicomics; and critically acclaimed, award-winning graphic novels. Some of these works have explicitly explored Asian American issues, such as anti-Asian racism, representations of history, questions of identity, and transnationalism; others may feature Asian or Asian American characters or settings without necessarily addressing established or familiar Asian American issues. Indeed, many works made by Asian American creators have little or no obvious or explicit Asian American content at all, and some non-Asian American creators have produced works with Asian American representations, including racist stereotypes and caricatures. The earliest representations of Asians in comics form in the United States were racist representations in the popular press, generally in single-panel caricatures that participated in anti-immigration discourses. However, some Asian immigrants in the early to mid-20th century also used graphic narratives to show and critique the treatment of Asians in the United States. In the realm of mainstream genre comics, Asian Americans have participated in the industry in a variety of different ways. As employees for hire, they created many well-known series and characters, generally not drawing, writing, or editing content that is recognizably Asian American. Since the 2010s, though, Asian American creators have reimagined Asian or Asian American versions of legacy characters like Superman and the Hulk and created new heroes like Ms. Marvel. In the wake of an explosion of general and scholarly interest in graphic novels in the 1990s, many independent Asian American cartoonists have become significant presences in the contemporary graphic narrative world.


After protracted illness, the death of Prof. David James Hamilton, M. B., LL. D., F. R. S., F. R. S. E., F. R. C. S. E., took place at his residence in Aberdeen on February 19, 1909. The subject of this memoir was born sixty years ago at Falkirk. He received his medical education at Edinburgh University, from which he graduated as M. B. in 1878. He subsequently held several clinical appointment: two in Edinburgh, where he acted as House Surgeon in the Royal Infirmary, then as Resident in the Chalmers Hospital; a third in Liverpool, where he held a Resident Surgeoncy in the Northern Hospital. Even at this early period of his career he was strongly attracted towards pathological problems, for the study of which his thorough acquaintance with the physiology of that period formed an all-important basis. This predilection for a branch of medical science at that time much neglected, was happily confirmed when the Triennial Astley Cooper Prize was awarded him for a thesis dealing with “The Diseases and Injuries of the Spinal Cord,” in which the result of much careful observation and research was embodied.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document