Graphic Medicine and Health Care Ethics

The arts have long been used as cultivators of reflection and storytelling about health and health care. Like novels, short stories, painting, sculpture, and film, comics can convey poignant stories, deliver analytical depth, and offer interpretive alternatives to text-based ethical inquiry. The February 2018 issue of the AMA Journal of Ethics will explore comics’ power to visually represent and comment on health care and health care experiences, guide patients’ and clinicians’ learning, and approach consideration of values in health care not only ethically but aesthetically.

Volume 20, Number 2: 113-208 Full Issue PDF
  • Medical Education
    Feb 2018

    Teaching Confidentiality through Comics at One Spanish Medical School

    Mónica Lalanda, MD, MSc, Rogelio Altisent, MD, PhD, and Maria Teresa Delgado-Marroquín, MD, PhD
    A comic is used to demonstrate that medical ethics topics, such as confidentiality, can be effectively taught with specially designed comics.
    AMA J Ethics. 2018;20(2):154-157. doi: 10.1001/journalofethics.2018.20.2.medu1-1802.
  • Medical Education
    Feb 2018

    Graphic Pathographies and the Ethical Practice of Person-Centered Medicine

    Kimberly R. Myers, MA, PhD and Michael D.F. Goldenberg, MA
    Graphic pathographies can facilitate physicians’ empathy with patients during informed consent and end-of-life conversations and promote patient education.
    AMA J Ethics. 2018;20(2):158-166. doi: 10.1001/journalofethics.2018.20.2.medu2-1802.
  • Medical Education
    Feb 2018

    Roles of Graphic Pathographies in Clinical Training

    Megan Yu
    Graphic pathographies are effective patient and medical student education tools and raise interesting, perhaps unexpected, ethical issues.
    AMA J Ethics. 2018;20(2):115-121. doi: 10.1001/journalofethics.2018.20.2.peer1-1802.
  • Medicine and Society
    Feb 2018

    Parasites! Graphic Exploration of Tropical Disease Drug Development

    Susan M. Squier, PhD
    Developing drugs for profit is challenged in Parasites!, a patient education comic that highlights the need for unprofitable drugs for tropical diseases.
    AMA J Ethics. 2018;20(2):167-175. doi: 10.1001/journalofethics.2018.20.2.msoc1-1802.
  • Art of Medicine
    Feb 2018

    The Crisis in Our Neighborhood

    Jason Bitterman, MD
    This comic on the opioid crisis portrays patients’ struggles and physicians’ roles in harm reduction.
    AMA J Ethics. 2018;20(2):195-196. doi: 10.1001/journalofethics.2018.20.2.imhl1-1802.
  • Art of Medicine
    Feb 2018

    Reviewing Systems

    Hannah R. Abrams
    This poster on a screening method for symptoms and their relation to population health won honorable mention in the 2017 Conley Art of Medicine Contest.
    AMA J Ethics. 2018;20(2):197-198. doi: 10.1001/journalofethics.2018.20.2.imhl2-1802.
  • Personal Narrative
    Feb 2018

    Representing AIDS in Comics

    MK Czerwiec, RN, MA
    HIV/AIDS comics can be an effective means of social and political advocacy, patient education, and remembrance but should respect those represented.
    AMA J Ethics. 2018;20(2):199-205. doi: 10.1001/journalofethics.2018.20.2.mnar1-1802.
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    Podcast
    Feb 2018

    Ethics Talk: Telling Stories of Illness with Comic Art

    What can comic art about illness and health care offer patients and families as they navigate health challenges? This month on Ethics Talk, we discuss why comic art is a unique and powerful medium for communicating about difficult and emotional encounters with illness and health care.