Ideas worth spreading

How visual storytelling creates better health care

1,911,509 views |

Sam Hester |

TEDxYYC

• June 2021

Comics creator Sam Hester is part of a growing movement within health care: graphic medicine. In short, literally drawing attention to a patient's needs and goals with pictures to foster better and more accessible caretaking. Hester shares how illustrating small details of her mother's medical story as she struggled with mysterious symptoms alongside her Parkinson's and dementia led to more empathy, understanding, communication and peace of mind.

Comics creator Sam Hester is part of a growing movement within health care: graphic medicine. In short, literally drawing attention to a patient's needs and goals with pictures to foster better and more accessible caretaking. Hester shares how illustrating small details of her mother's medical story as she struggled with mysterious symptoms alongside her Parkinson's and dementia led to more empathy, understanding, communication and peace of mind.

This talk was presented to a local audience at TEDxYYC, an independent event. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

Read more about TEDx.

Learn more about the graphic medicine movement.

About the speaker

Sam Hester

Graphic recorder

See speaker profile

A leader in the emerging field of graphic recording, Sam Hester creates visual stories. Her work draws upon deep listening skills, a unique graphic style, a passion for community-building … and a lot of markers.

| Explore

Graphic medicine | The intersection of comics and health care

Learn about the graphic medicine community.

| Explore

Dementia Connections Magazine

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.

Jocelyn Burgener | Friesen Press, 2014 | Book

Naked Under My Coat: Writing Under the Influence of Parkinson's

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.

Susan MacLeod | Conundrum Press, 2021 | Book

Dying for Attention

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.

| Explore

The Empathy Project: Supporting a Culture of Empathy in Medicine

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.

Alan Alda | Clear + Vivid, 2021 | Listen

"The LaPook Effect: Empathy for doctors"

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.

Pip Desmond | TEDxWellingtonWomen, 2015 | Watch

"Ethical Storytelling"

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

About TEDx

TEDx was created in the spirit of TED's mission, "ideas worth spreading." It supports independent organizers who want to create a TED-like event in their own community.

Find a TEDx event near you

This talk was presented to a local audience at TEDxYYC, an independent event. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

Read more about TEDx.

Learn more about the graphic medicine movement.