Medicina Gráfica & Monica Lalanda
Mónica Lalanda is a physician, cartoonist, and the co-founder of Medicina Gráfíca. Monica grew up in Spain where she went to medical school. When she finished her medical degree, she moved to England where she trained and then worked as an emergency medicine doctor. At that time she wrote and illustrated (Hospital Doctor, Casebook, etc). This pushed her to feel a need to train in the arts so she did a diploma in Cartoon Drawing in London. When she returned to Spain (16 years, a husband, two children, a mortgage, and a lot of experience later) Mónica continued working in the emergency room while writing and illustrating.
A passion for ethics, communication, medicine, and drawing have brought her to her current fascination for comics. Mónica dedicated her final Master’s thesis in Bioethics to comics as a communication tool in medicine. She also did research work and a teaching innovation project on this topic at the University of Zaragoza. Her comics are used in various publications, such as a course of english for spanish doctors. In 2016 she published a comic on medical ethics entitled CON-CIENCIA MÉDICA. She is also a contributor to Menopause: A Comic Treatment.
Monica does weekly and monthly cartoons in Spanish medical media. Her last project Ser Médico is a pack of cards with advice for new doctors. Mónica and her enthusistic colleagues in Medicina Gráfica now run a Masters Degree in Graphic Medicine at the International University of Andalucia. Here is Mónica’s video profile – @mlalanda