Graphic Medicine

• Fosters empathy for the patient and caregiver perspectives
• Requires visual and gestural literacy skills similar to those required for excellent patient care
• Allows for self-reflection and meaning-making of often complex topics
• Is a safe space to explore and express criticism of healthcare
• Reduces stigma
• Improves recall of information through use of storytelling and the combination of narrative and art
• Can express an alternate viewpoint
• Can make difficult subjects feel more approachable
• Is a means of effective patient outreach and communication
• Medium of comics can relieve stress
• Prompts classroom discussion in medical classroom (examples below)

Medically-themed comics inspire classroom discussions such as:

• The value of observing nonverbal cues
• The importance of attending to the patient's concerns
• Differences between the patient's and the physician's experience of illness
• The importance of truth telling in medicine
• The role of social and political factors in shaping illness
• The challenges of coping with mental illness and the ambivalence patients may feel about treatment
• The complexity of doctor-patient communication and the implications for informed decision making

                Source: Czerwiec, M., Williams, I., Squier, S., Green, M., Myers, K., & Smith, S. (2015). Graphic medicine manifesto . The Pennsylvania State University Press.