Medical illustration exists at the nexus of art and science, anatomy to be precise. Medical illustrations are a valuable aid to training physicians and other health care workers. The art arose out of this need in antiquity. Medical students can dissect bodies, although that has been a problem in some periods of history, and they can observe the body, but until fairly recently they could not see what's going on inside a living body. Medical illustrators translated the appearance of cadavers into the dynamic images of functioning bodies and their processes, an invaluable resource for education. They show us what cannot be seen.
This still goes on today, despite the technological advances that show us more of the living human body. We now have photography, microscopes, x-rays, and MRI scans, but the need for medical illustration is still there. Illustrators still translate difficult data into understandable images, such as the structure of molecules. We've all seen the explanations of COVID-19 and how the mRNA vaccines work. We have medical illustrators to thank for that. This specialized work requires both artistic skills and extensive knowledge of biology. Read about medical illustration and why it's important at The Conversation.
(Image credit: Double-M)
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