Vol. 38, No. 18

4-4-2007
By: Julia Harris

Picture this

Medical illustrators shed light on complex subjects

Molly Thompson demonstrates her process for illustrating a surgical technique.

When describing the innovative robotic surgery techniques of Ohio State’s Center for Minimally Invasive Surgery, words only go so far. Pictures, on the other hand, speak volumes.

That’s where Molly Thompson, a medical illustrator at the Center for Knowledge Management, comes in. Her job is to turn complicated medical procedures into clean and comprehensible drawings.

Thompson often can be found in her windowed cubicle, staring intently at her computer screen with a clipboard balanced on her lap. Unfolding on her monitor might be a pulpy red prostate surgery performed by tiny pincers that move with dizzying speed. She rewinds the DVD, draws something on her clipboard and rewinds it some more. On the screen, tissues peel away from each other as her pencil moves.

The process is long and not for the faint of heart. But for Thompson, who has been with Ohio State since January 2005, it’s one she thoroughly enjoys.

She is one of two medical illustrators at the CKM, a group of service units that provide Web, digital, print and other technologies to the Medical Center community. Together with Stephanie Orr, team leader of the PRINTservices unit within CKM, Thompson produces drawings and diagrams ranging from complex medical techniques to basic anatomical structures. Their work appears in medical journals, textbooks and other educational resources.

When asked to classify what they do as art or science, Orr and Thompson say, simply, “It’s both.”

“I didn’t want to rely on fine art as a career because I didn’t think it was lucrative, and I enjoy having a purpose to my work, beyond its art value,” Thompson recalls. “I liked science and did well in biology in high school, but I didn’t care for physics and chemistry. So for me there’s a real practicality to medical illustration.”

The field is highly specialized, with less than 10 institutions across the country offering degrees in medical illustration. Orr earned her master’s at the Medical College of Georgia after graduating from the Columbus College of Art and Design. Thompson received an undergraduate degree in medical illustration at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Part of their training involved extensive work with cadaver dissection and operating room observation.

“We did a lot of the first-year medical students’ curriculum with them,” Orr says. “It was fun and really challenging — I was thinking with a completely

This image by Thompson is part of a series for Herbert Newton, director of the Division of Neuro-Oncology at the Medical Center.

Orr drew this illustration of bariatric procedures.

different side of my brain after five years of art school.”

Coming up with the precise way to present a medical procedure, a portion of anatomy or an instructional technique, Thompson says, involves problem solving, communication and perseverance.

Most often, the process of creating a medical illustration is initiated by a doctor or researcher who wants a visual to accompany an article he or she is having published. The first step, Thompson says, is a long meeting in which she asks questions, looks at whatever visuals the client has and makes sure she has a solid understanding of the medical procedure.

“Our clients are our best resource,” Thompson says,“because they are the experts. But many times they’ll bring in sketches and I still won’t have a clear idea of what they’re talking about until we really break down the concept and start from the basic anatomy. It’s my job to translate their knowledge into something their audience understands, whether they are patients or other experts in the field.”

After the initial meeting, Thompson immerses herself in research. The Prior Health Sciences Library houses bones and anatomical models she can use, and she also has access to the cadaver lab.

The intended audience of a drawing greatly influences how it will be done, Orr notes. For patient education pieces, such as a series on prostate cancer for men, the style is more straightforward and simplified. For medical malpractice suits, which depend on presenting bold and graphic illustrations of damage to juries, the work needs to be big, brash and uncomplicated.

Orr says her job provides something new and educational every day.

“There’s always a new project that you need to research, an interesting puzzle or problem to solve,” she says. “And the educational aspect of what I’m doing for patients and doctors is very fulfilling.”

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