Research Guides: Graphic Medicine: What is Graphic Medicine?

What is Graphic Medicine?

Graphic Medicine refers to the use of graphic novels, comics, and visual storytelling in medical education, patient care, and other applications related to healthcare and the life sciences. The term was first coined by Ian Williams, M.D. for the website www.graphicmedicine.org. Michael J. Green, M.D. and Kimberly R. Myers. Ph.D. later acknowledged the term in an article published in BMJ: Green, Michael J., & Myers, Kimberly R. (2010). Graphic medicine: Use of comics in medical education and patient care. British Medical Journal, 340(7746), 574.

"Some healthcare professionals—especially those working in public health, with young people, or with non-native speakers—have begun to use graphic stories for patient care and education. One reason this practice is not more widespread is probably because most doctors have not considered its merits. We believe that graphic stories have an important role in patient care, medical education, and the social critique of the medical profession."

The field of Graphic Medicine has continued to grow in popularity and size as new work is published and new applications for the work are explored. The International Comics and Medicine Conference meets annually, gathering clinicians, academics, health carers, artists, authors, and fans of comics and medicine.

Just as there are many genres of books and film, there are many genres of comics and graphic novels: fiction, non-fiction, memoir. They may be funny, sad, informative, provocative, outrageous. Stories may be published in print or on the web, as a book, a series, or a single comic strip. Some illustrations are elaborate and detailed while others are quite simple. But they all use visual storytelling to connect with the reader in some way.

Graphic Medicine Manifesto by M. K. Czerwiec; Ian Williams; Susan Merrill Squier; Michael J. Green; Kimberly R. Myers; Scott T. Smith
Call Number: Digital E-Book

ISBN: 9780271066493

Publication Date: 2015-04-22

Combining scholarly essays with visual narratives and a conclusion in comics form, establishes graphic medicine as a new area of scholarship. Demonstrates that graphic medicine narratives offer patients, family members, and medical caregivers new ways to negotiate the challenges of the medical experience. Discusses comics as visual rhetoric. (publisher description)
Gender, Eating Disorders, and Graphic Medicine by Anu Mary Peter; Sathyaraj Venkatesan
ISBN: 9781003087564

Publication Date: 2020-06-11

Developing an understanding of eating disorders beyond the biological/medical framework has become a necessity in present times, especially when eating disorders are swiftly spreading deep roots across the world. In view of the multidimensional etiology of eating disorders, there are increased efforts towards understanding its phenomenological, cultural, and other related non-medical aspects, and Gender, Eating Disorders, and Graphic Medicine leaps past the prevalent notions on eating disorder, and contributes to the developing corpus of affective knowledge on eating disorders among women through comics and graphic medicine. Taking cues from select graphic narratives on eating disorders, this book attempts to posit graphic medicine as one of the most befitting modes of life writing. This book is distinctive in that it is an attempt not only to explore the multi-dimensional etiology of eating disorders in women using graphic medicine narratives but also to understand how graphic medicine humanizes eating disorders by offering a unique ingress into women’s phenomenological experience of eating disorders.

Graphic Medicine

What is Graphic Medicine?

Further Reading