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.

Decision making in health care demands that we balance multiple considerations, like quality of life, statistics, and how different options could affect others. Dr Brian Zikmund-Fisher shares his own experience as a patient and explains how decision science can help us navigate ethically complex health decisions.  

Dr Noelle Driver joins Ethics Talk to discuss the status of health care workers earning low wages, and Pheobe Cohen shares how her own experience in health care helps motivate her artistic practice as a comic maker.

Dr Evguenia S. Popova joins Ethics Talk to discuss how collaborations between academic health centers and arts institutions can help students build their professional skills in empathic responsiveness and communication.

Brian Robert Smith joins Ethics Talk to discuss his article: “Greener Health Care Is a Necessity.”

Jamaljé R. Bassue joins Ethics Talk to discuss his short film: “You Might Be Here Awhile.”

Beck Regan joins Ethics Talk to discuss their comic, “Resiliency: A Completely Normal Conversation Between a Box and a Medical Student.”

Dr Whitney Riley Linsenmeyer joins Ethics Talk to discuss her article, coauthored with Dr Sarah Garwood: “Patient-Centered Approaches to Using BMI to Evaluate Gender-Affirming Surgery Eligibility.”

Tania L. Abramson joins Ethics Talk to discuss her article, coauthored with Dr Paul R. Abramson: “Illuminating Psychological Torment of Child Abuse.”

Dr Art Walaszek joins Ethics Talk to discuss his article, coauthored with Drs William Smith and David Elkin: “How to Draw on Narrative to Mitigate Ageism.”