Drawing Together: Visual Storytellers Combine Art and Medicine

This article is part of an ongoing series illuminating the lived experiences of narrative practice in action — where listening, meaning-making, and empathy transform everyday encounters.

Graphic medicine sits at the intersection between the medium of comics and the practice of healthcare, which includes graphic memoirs of illness, educational comics about medical practice, along with infographics and visual texts that engage with discourses of healthcare, illness, and therapy.

Meet some Narrative Mindworks members who are designing graphic medicine narratives to transform how people engage with illness, healing, and the lived experience of health.

These dedicated practitioners in the field of graphic medicine say that this creative form of visual communication, and a commitment to human-centered narratives, can deepen understanding, foster empathy and spark conversations between patients and their providers about health education and care.

While the term “graphic medicine” itself is relatively new, the use of comics to address health-related themes has a longer history dating back to the 1940s–1980s using graphics that dealt with topics like drugs and public health. Contemporary graphic medicine emerged around 2007 when Dr. Ian Williams, a Welsh-born physician, explored the intersection of comics and medicine and founded the website GraphicMedicine.org. The field has gained momentum to include art and medicine thanks to scholars and clinicians like Penn State professors Michael J. Green, Kimberly Meyers, and Susan Squier. It has grown into the global movement, the Graphic Medicine International Collective.

Dr. Oludurotimi Adetunji: Making Science Available Through Animation

“Our goal is to change the narrative and make science available to all people. By fostering empathy and storytelling, SciToons bridges the gap between science and human connection.”

At the intersection of art, science, and storytelling, SciToons is transforming how we understand complex topics. Founded by Dr. Oludurotimi Adetunji at Brown University, this innovative program combines animation and narrative to make science accessible, engaging, and deeply human.

Oludurotimi and his team are redefining graphic medicine by blending storytelling, animation, and science to make complex topics more accessible and empathetic. Drawing from his background in physics and science education, he founded SciToons—a program that pairs experts with student animators to create engaging videos on subjects like health literacy and solar energy.

SciToons’ work, including a collaboration with Columbia’s Narrative Medicine Program, shows how storytelling can build empathy in healthcare. Their video, Narrative Medicine: The Power of Storytelling highlights the emotional depth stories bring to clinical care.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, SciToons addressed global health challenges with timely, emotionally resonant content. With 24.7K YouTube subscribers in over 180 countries, Oludurotimi’s work demonstrates how narrative and animation can transform science and medicine into more inclusive, human experiences.

The most recent video walks viewers through the grocery store aisle spotlighting a box of cereal with the label Non-GMOs. What does genetically modified organisms mean? The answer to this question has to do with genetic engineering, which involves changing an organism’s genetic make-up.

Dr. Sapana Adhikari: Merging Medicine, Illustration, and Global Advocacy

"I want my work to impact people at every level—from the patient in the ER who understands their diagnosis better, to my students who incorporate humanism into their future careers, and to the women in Nepal who learn to thrive through entrepreneurship."

Dr. Sapana Adhikari, an Emergency Medicine physician at Advocate Health in Charlotte, NC, brings art to the bedside. For over 20 years, she’s used hand-drawn medical illustrations to help patients understand complex diagnoses—culminating in her book Diagnosketch: A Visual Guide to Medical Diagnosis for the Non-Medical Audience.

Her oil paintings, inspired by the emotional depth of emergency care, have been exhibited at the National Academy of Medicine and Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine. She also co-teaches narrative medicine at Wake University, encouraging future physicians to embrace creativity, empathy, and reflection.

Through medical art, teaching, and global health advocacy, Dr. Adhikari is reimagining what it means to be both healer and humanist. She will be the keynote speaker at Advocate Health’s 11th Annual Narrative Medicine Conference - The Art of Narrative Medicine: An Rx for Rehumanizing Healthcare, Sept. 19 at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, IL.

Lisa Erdman: Artist’s Bold Strokes Aim to Transform Medicine

“Art creates space for stories that medicine often overlooks.”

Lisa Erdman blends performance art, poetry, collage making, photography, satire, and graphic medicine to explore how storytelling can transform healthcare. With a background in media arts and medical humanities, Lisa has taught at Penn State College of Medicine and now serves as adjunct professor of humanities at Elizabethtown College, focusing on art-based methods in medical education.

Her interdisciplinary work—ranging from live performances to watercolor pieces reflecting life as a single parent—examines how race, identity, and the medical gaze shape patient experience. She grounds herself and her academic teaching in daily drawings—quick sketches with pen created in various settings – her desk, a cafe, the local pond. A meditation on the process of observing and connecting with the world around her.

One of her most recent projects is the "Freedom Series" of drawings, watercolor, and text that dissected the domestic experience of single parents during the COVID-19 pandemic. “As a single mother myself, I use this artwork as a framework for expressing unmet personal dreams and desires. This visual process provides a meditative path to radical acceptance in the face of illness and isolation.”

Whether it’s writing a poem or painting a watercolor, Lisa says, “Art gives me, and all of us, a way to process life. The arts can be so healing—not just as a medical tool, but as a part of our everyday lives. I really love working with university and medical students to help them explore opportunities in the medical humanities. The question for them is how they too can turn it into a career. I like to think I play a small part in inspiring them.” (Read more here.)

Rita Basuray: Reimagining Narrative Practice Through Visual Art

“I started drawing before I started speaking. I wanted to go to art school, but my surgeon father said absolutely not. Physiology was the compromise. Now I’m retired and taking art classes with a vengeance. I’ve been doodling my whole career; it is how I process complex medical topics.”

For Rita Basuray, PhD, a recently retired scientist and professor in the Arts & Sciences department at the University of Kentucky, graphic medicine has been a doorway to creativity—drawing, photography, and narrative practice have always been powerful media to understand medicine.

These visual tools allow her to process complex personal and historical narratives while fostering deeper human connection. With a passion for visual storytelling, Rita blends scientific inquiry with artistic exploration, using imagery to bring clarity, empathy, and meaning to both her teaching and everyday experiences.

A compelling example of her work in graphic medicine is her reimagining of Picasso’s Guernica through a modern lens of warfare and social justice. By visually interpreting themes of violence, trauma, and resistance, she engages with current global conflicts while connecting them to historical events. Click here to listen to her interview with Narrative Mindworks.