Graphic medicine

The phrase graphic medicine was coined by Dr. Ian Williams,[3][4] founder of GraphicMedicine.org, to denote "the intersection between the medium of comics and the discourse of healthcare".[5] Comics offer an engaging, powerful, and accessible method of delivering illness narratives.[6] The academic appraisal of graphic fiction is in its infancy, but its examination by academics involved in healthcare-related studies is increasing, with work emerging in journals.[4]

It is notable that the medical humanities movement in many medical schools advocates the framework and use of literature in exploring illness, from practitioner and patient perspectives.[4]

A late-2010s entry to the scholarly study of graphic medicine is the Einstein Foundation-funded project at the Free University of Berlin (2016-2019) under the direction of Irmela Marei Krüger-Fürhoff, and with the collaboration of Susan M. Squier, Einstein Visiting Fellow and Brill Professor at the Pennsylvania State University. The PathoGraphics research group was concerned with the study of illness narratives, or "pathographies," and works of graphic medicine.

Williams set up the Graphic Medicine website in 2007[3] while writing a master's dissertation on medical narrative in comics and graphic novels,[7] during which time he found two essays by Susan M. Squier on the topic. (Squier is Penn State's Brill Professor of English and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; she teaches graphic medicine to Ph.D. students at Penn State.)[8] Scholars from around the world who were interested in comics and healthcare began to get in touch, notably Professor Michael Green, who had recently set up a graphic narratives course at Hershey Medical School at Penn State University,[9] and MK Czerwiec, a.k.a. "Comic Nurse", who had, for many years, been recording her experiences as an HIV/AIDS hospice nurse in comics form.[10]

Green invited his colleagues Kimberley Myers, of the Medical Humanities Program at Penn State Milton Hershey Medical School, and Susan M. Squier, whose work Williams had encountered earlier, to the discussion group, and Williams introduced Maria Vaccarella, Giskin Day, and Columba Quigley.[11] The group decided to hold a conference, in 2010 at The University of London,[12] which led to a series of annual international conferences with presentations that are frequently posted as podcasts after the conference.

In 2014, the first American Library Association Will Eisner Graphic Novel Growth Grant was awarded to Ypsilanti District Library, (Ypsilanti, Michigan) for its proposal to build a collection of graphic medicine narratives.[13] (Author MK Czerwiec lectured in the fall of 2014 at Ypsilanti's St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in support of this grant.)[14] To date, the Ypsilanti District Library collection contains over 200 graphic medicine titles.[15]

Penn State University Press published The Graphic Medicine Manifesto in 2015;[16][3] this was the inaugural volume in the ongoing Graphic Medicine series at Penn State University Press,[17] which was originally co-edited by Susan M. Squier and Ian Williams. As of 2023, the series includes more than 20 titles.[18][19]

In 2018, the United States National Library of Medicine launched "Graphic Medicine: Ill-Conceived and Well Drawn!", which included a special display, traveling banner exhibition, and online exhibition.[20]

In 2020, Technical Communications Quarterly published a special issue on comics and graphic storytelling. This issue included a category of research articles examining graphic health communication.

Graphic medicine’s popularity keeps growing across the world. In some clinical settings, graphic medicine is being used to explore therapeutic possibilities.[21] Beyond the US and UK, graphic medicine is practiced and studied in Spain, Taiwan, Germany, India, Singapore, and a host of other nations; for example: Monica Lalanda's Medicina Grafica, the Japan Graphic Medicine Association (JGMA), and the Graphic Medicine Lab in India.

• Anderson, Patricia F.; Wescom, Elise; Carlos, Ruth C. (2016). "Difficult Doctors, Difficult Patients: Building Empathy". Journal of the American College of Radiology. 13 (12): 1590–1598.
• Bahl, Erin Kathleen; Figueiredo, Sergio; Shivener, Rich, eds. Special issue on Comics and Graphic Storytelling in Technical Communication: Technical Communication Quarterly vol. 29, issue 3 (2020).
• Czerwiec, MK; Williams, Ian; Squier, Susan Merrill; Green, Michael J.; Myers, Kimberly R.; and Smith, Scott T. The Graphic Medicine Manifesto (Penn State University Press, 2015, ISBN 9780271066493). Content summary: "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."
• Garrison-Joyner, Veronica; Caravella, Elizabeth (2020-07-02). "Lapses in Literacy: Cultural Accessibility in Graphic Health Communication". Technical Communication Quarterly. 29 (3): iii–xxv. doi:10.1080/10572252.2020.1768295. ISSN 1057-2252. S2CID 219421435.
• Green, MJ; Myers, KR (3 Mar 2010). "Graphic medicine: use of comics in medical education and patient care". BMJ (Clinical Research Ed.). 340: c863. doi:10.1136/bmj.c863. PMID 20200064. S2CID 33841883.
• Green, MD, MS, Michael J. (June 2015). "Comics and Medicine: Peering Into the Process of Professional Identity Formation". Academic Medicine. 90 (6): 774–779. doi:10.1097/ACM.0000000000000703.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Petersen, Emily January; Matheson, Breeanne (2 July 2020). ""Speaking so that We are Heard:" A Zulu Comic Book as Women's Social Action in 1990s South Africa". Technical Communication Quarterly. 29 (3): 271–286. doi:10.1080/10572252.2020.1768290. ISSN 1057-2252. S2CID 219410980.
• Squier, Susan M (Summer 2007). "Beyond Nescience: The Intersectional Insights of Health Humanities". Perspectives in Biology and Medicine. 50 (3): 334–47. doi:10.1353/pbm.2007.0039. PMID 17660629. S2CID 31236212.
• Squier, Susan M. (1 June 2008). "So Long as They Grow Out of It: Comics, The Discourse of Developmental Normalcy, and Disability". Journal of Medical Humanities. 29 (2): 71–88. doi:10.1007/s10912-008-9057-1. ISSN 1573-3645. PMID 18392671. S2CID 6163218.
• Squier, Susan M. and Marks, J. Ryan, eds. Special issue on Graphic Medicine. Configurations: A Journal of Literature, Science, and Technology vol. 22, issue 2 (Spring 2014)
• Squier, Susan M. and Krüger-Fürhoff, Irmela Marei, eds. PathoGraphics: Narrative, Aesthetics, Contention, Community (Penn State University Press Graphic Medicine book series, 2020)
• Tuohy, Patricia (July 2018). "Reading graphic medicine". Journal of the Medical Library Association. 106 (3): 387–390. doi:10.5195/jmla.2018.449. PMC 6013142. PMID 29962918.
• Venkatesan, Sathyaraj; Joshi, Ishani Anwesha (2022). "'The Time Is out of Joint': Temporality, COVID-19 and Graphic Medicine". Medical Humanities. 48 (4).
• Venkatesan, Sathyaraj; Joshi, Ishani Anwesha (2022). "Covid-19, Graphic Medicine, and Thinking beyond Data". Perspectives in Biology and Medicine. 65 (4): 694–709.
• Williams, IC (2012-01-25). "Graphic medicine: comics as medical narrative". Medical Humanities. 38 (1): 21–7. doi:10.1136/medhum-2011-010093. PMID 22282425. S2CID 46704658.

• 2018 "Graphic Medicine: Ill-Conceived and Well Drawn!",[2] (United States National Library of Medicine), including the video "A Conversation about Graphic Medicine"

• Narrative medicine

• GraphicMedicine.org
• Graphic Medicine annual conference
• Annals Graphic Medicine by Annals of Internal Medicine
• Penn State Press Graphic Medicine book series
• website of MK Czerwiec, a.k.a. "Comic Nurse"
• Spanish language graphic medicine blog
• Japan Graphic Medicine Association website
• Information about Dr. Sathyaraj Venkatesan, Professor of English at the National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli, where he specializes in health humanities and comics studies, with an emphasis on graphic medicine