How visual storytelling creates better health care

Learn about the graphic medicine community.

In my talk, I mentioned that my mom and I wrote some comics that were published in a magazine about dementia. Here is the magazine’s website and the three comics that my mom and I wrote.

In my talk, I mention that my mom self-published a book of poems and short stories. Her book is called Naked Under My Coat: Writing Under the Influence of Parkinson’s. The book was an outlet for her personal insights and reflections, not all of which are directly related to Parkinson’s. You can order it from my mother's website.

In this 2021 graphic memoir, Susan MacLeod describes her journey of caring for her aging mother, while reflecting on how that experience changed her perspective on a health care system she once defended in her role as a Department of Health spokesperson.

Graphic medicine is part of a larger movement towards a recognition of the importance of empathy in health care. One of the reasons graphic medicine is effective, is because it can be a tool for building empathy.

I learned about The Empathy Project from Alan Alda’s interview with Dr. Jon LaPook. In the interview, there are two segments that might be of interest to people who viewed my talk: at 24:00, Alan Alda and Dr. LaPook discuss “Dancing for Parkinson’s,” a dance therapy program that my mom participated in over several years. They go on to discuss Alan Alda’s own experience with Parkinson’s; and at 34:32, Dr. LaPook talks about using personal stories to help health care communication, in almost the same way it is described in my talk.

I’d recommend this talk to anyone who is interested in the same questions that lie behind my story about my mom.