Medical illustrator

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A medical illustrator is a professional artist with extensive training in medicine and science who interprets and creates visual material to help record and disseminate medical, biological and related knowledge. Medical illustrators not only produce such material but function as consultants and administrators within the field of biocommunication.

They create medical illustrations using traditional and digital techniques which can appear in medical textbooks, medical advertisements, professional journals, instructional videotapes and films, animations, computer-assisted learning programs, exhibits, lecture presentations, general magazines and television. Although most medical illustration is designed for print or presentation media, medical illustrators also work in three dimensions, creating anatomical teaching models, patient simulators and facial prosthetics.

1 History
2 Profession
3 Education
4 References

[edit] History

Medical illustrations have been made for hundreds (or thousands) of years; many illuminated manuscripts and Arabic scholarly treatises of the medieval period contained illustrations representing various anatomical systems (circulatory, nervous, urogenital), pathologies, or treatment methodologies. Many of these illustrations can look odd to modern eyes, since they reflect early reliance on classical scholarship (especially Galen) rather than direct observation, and the representation of internal structures can be fanciful. An early high-water mark was the 1542 CE publication of Andreas Vesalius's De Humani Corporis Fabrica Libri Septum, which contained more than 600 exquisite woodcut illustrations based on careful observation of human dissection.

As a profession, medical illustration has a more recent history. In the late 1890s, Max Brödel, a talented artist from Leipzig, was brought to The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore to illustrate for Harvey Cushing, William Halstead, Howard Kelly, and other notable clinicians. In addition to being an extraordinary artist, he created new techniques, such as carbon dust, that were especially suitable to his subject matter and then-current printing technologies. In 1911 he presided over the creation of the first academic department of medical illustration, which continues to this day. His graduates spread out across the world, and founded a number of the academic programs listed below under "Education".

Notable medical illustrators include Jan Stephen van Calcar (Vesalius' illustrator), Max Brödel, and Dr. Frank H. Netter.

[edit] Profession

The Association of Medical Illustrators (external link) is an international organization founded in 1945, and incorporated in Illinois. Its members are primarily artists who create material designed to facilitate the recording and dissemination of medical and bioscientific knowledge through visual communication media. Members are involved not only in the creation of such material, but also serve in consultant, advisory, educational and administrative capacities in all aspects of bioscientific communications and related areas of visual education.

The professional objectives of the AMI are to promote the study and advancement of medical illustration and allied fields of visual communication, and to promote understanding and cooperation with the medical profession and related health science professions.

[edit] Education

Most medical illustrators in the profession have a Master's degree from an accredited graduate program in medical illustration, although a Master's degree is not required to be a competent and successful medical illustrator. There are five accredited graduate programs in North America:

The Department of Art as Applied to Medicine on the East Baltimore Campus of the world famous Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions (JHMI) was the first program of its kind in the world. Endowed in 1911 and has been teaching medical illustration continuously for over 90 years. In 1959, the Johns Hopkins University approved a two-year graduate program leading to the University-wide degree of Master of Arts in Medical and Biological Illustration. The academic calendar, faculty and student affairs are administered by The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. The program has been fully accredited since 1970, currently accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP). The current Chair and Director of the program is Gary P. Lees, MS, CMI.
The Medical Illustration Graduate Program of the Medical College of Georgia, is located in the city of Augusta and fully accredited by (CAAHEP). Successful completion of the program confers a Master of Science in Medical Illustration. The program emphasizes anatomical and surgical illustration for print and electronic publication, as well as for projection and broadcast distribution. Because of the importance of good drawing skills, the students learn a variety of traditional illustration techniques during the first year. In addition, computer technologies and digital techniques, used to prepare both vector and raster images for print and motion media, are well and extensively integrated into the curriculum. The first Master of Science degree in Medical Illustation at MCG was awarded in 1951.
The Biomedical Communications Program at the University of Toronto. This program was begun in 1945 by Maria Wishart, a student of Max Brödel's. Faculty and graduates of the program contributed the drawings for Grant's Atlas of Anatomy, a renowned guide to dissection, structure, and function for medical students. The current two-year professional Master's program, offered through the Institute of Medical Science, emphasizes a research-based approach to the creation and evaluation of visual material for health promotion, medical education, and the process of scientific discovery.
The Biomedical Communication Graduate Program at the The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center was the first school in the world to offer a Graduate degree in medical illustration in 1945. The program is offered through the Department of Biomedical Communications, and courses are taught by faculty of The University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, Southwestern Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and Southwestern Allied Health Sciences School. The program is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs and the Association of Medical Illustrators. It is designed to be an interdisciplinary program that provides opportunities for development of the skills and knowledge needed in the application of communications arts and technology to the health sciences.
The biomedical visualization program at The University of Chicago's College of Applied Health Sciences is the second oldest school of medical illustration in the western hemisphere, founded in 1921 by Thomas Smith Jones (Jones also was co-founder of the Association of Medical Illustrators). The UIC program is located in the national healthcare and pharmaceutical hub of Chicago, and offers a market-based curriculum that includes the highest ends of technology (including the renown Virtual Reality Medical Laboratory and a rigorous animation curriculum). Biomedical Visualization is located on the UIC Medical Center campus, home of the largest medical school in the United States. The UIC program blends the more traditional aspects of medical illustration and the emerging markets of digital, pharmaceutical, and "edutainment" industries. UIC also offers an extensive study in the field of anaplatology (facial and somatic prosthetics), medical sculpture, and an international internship program is available. A two-year Master of Science (MS) in Biomedical Visualization degree is awarded, and the program is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP) .

[edit] References

Crosby, Ranice W. and John Cody. 1991. Max Brödel; The Man Who Put Art Into Medicine. New York: Springer-Verlag.

Demarest, Robert J., editor. 1995. The History of The Association of Medical Illustrators, 1945-1995. Atlanta: The Association of Medical Illustrators.