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On Tuesday, December 4th, members of the Mount Sinai community gathered to learn about a relatively new area of healthcare scholarship: Graphic Medicine. As the latest installment of Levy Library's Mindful Medicine series, "Introduction to Graphic Medicine" was lead by Dr. Grace Farris, Chief of the Division of Hospital Medicine at Mount Sinai West and a bioethicist whose own comics have appeared in MUTHA Magazine and the Annals of Internal Medicine. According the Dr. Farris, this rapidly emerging medium combines narrative medicine with the power of graphics to enhance communication about patient and provider experiences.

Dr. Ian Williams, a pioneer of Graphic Medicine, originally denoted the form as "the intersection between the medium of comics and the discourse of healthcare." Graphic Medicine can be very helpful with system-based learning objectives when designing medical curriculum. On the patient/provider side, this application helps to provide different perspectives throughout the healthcare and medical experiences. Drawing or reading Graphic Medicine content can also be utilized in physician burnout resilience. 

One big takeaway of this workshop? If you know how to write, you already know how to draw. You don't need to be the next great artist. Just grab some paper, a pencil and tell your story!

Click here to learn more about Graphic Medicine at Levy Library