Graphic Medicine
Understanding patient experience through comics
This set of four modules will discuss graphic medicine (the interdisciplinary intersection of medicine and comics) and its use in public and clinical settings. The purpose of these modules is to use comics in order to better educate participating healthcare professionals on the importance of interpreting the nonverbal communications (facial expressions, body language, etc.) of patients in a healthcare setting. We will also find ways to better build rapport and bias-free understanding between patients and professionals. Participants will learn about graphic medicine, current works, othered bodies, and finally how to construct a comic based on their own experiences.
Learning Objectives
- Orient to the field of graphic medicine
- Understand ways graphic medicine can assist in patient care
- Unsettle oppressive biases about patients we not fully understand
- Strengthen critical self-reflection skills
Lessons
RECOMMENDED FORMAT: Self-directed, Classroom Course
Go to Facilitation Guides
CURRICULUM DETAILS:
Est. total length: 6 hours
4 Lesson and est. 90 min per Lesson
INSTRUCTIONS:
- Download/print and review the Graphic Medicine Workbook.
- Work through the video Lessons in order.
We invite you to participate in this evaluation survey about your most recent experience with our website. You can complete this evaluation after each learning resource you finish, or after you have worked through multiple resources.
Additional Resources
Click above link to view Additional Resources.
Barthes, Roland.,& Heath, S. Image, music, text. (London, Fontana Press, Harper Collins: 2010)
Bayoumi, Soha. "Covid Comics: Decentering White Narratives in Graphic Medicine", by Circulating Now. Circulating Now: From the Historical Collections of the National Library of Medicine (2023)
Dennett, Carrie. “Is the so-called “obesity epidemic” just a marketing strategy?” in Nutrition by Carrie. N.P (2022)
Canguilhem, Georges. The Normal and the Pathological, (New York, Zone Books, 194/1991)
Czerwiec, MK., Williams, Ian., Squier, Susan M., Green, Michael J., Myers, Kimberly R., Smith, Scott T. Graphic medicine manifesto, (University Park, The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2015
Foucault, Michel. The birth of biopolitics (New York, Picador, 2004/1978-79)
Garland-Thompson, Rosemarie. Staring: how we look, (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2009)
Hall, Melinda C. “Critical Disability theory” in eds. Zalta, Edward N. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2019). N.p.
Obuobi S, Vela MB, Callender B. Comics as anti-racist education and advocacy. Lancet. 2021 May 1;397(10285):1615-1617. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(21)00940-5. PMID: 33933198; PMCID: PMC9754088.
Strings, Sabrina. Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia (New York: New York University Press, 2019)
Thomas, Rachel. Shrink: Story of a Fat Girl. (University Park, The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2024)
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. Canada’s Residential Schools: The History, Part 1, Origins to 1939: The Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Volume I. McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2015. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt19rm9v4
Contributors
