Another fantastic panel from Toronto! This one is moderated by Brian Fies and discusses comics in relation to two major public health issues: smoking and hypertension.
First up is Alan Blum, an authority on the tobacco industry. In 1977, he founded Doctors Ought to Care (DOC), the first physicians’ organization dedicated to ending the tobacco pandemic. As editor of the Medical Journal of Australia and the New York State Journal of Medicine in the 1980s, he published the first theme issues on smoking at any journal.
He describes part one of his presentation, “Seeing patients: The sketchiest details”
As a medical student, Dr. Blum began sketching his patients on prescription pads and jotting down snippets of their stories. Culled from more than 5,000 such artworks, this presentation pays tribute to the patients he has been privileged to know.
Dr. Blum’s sketches can be seen in this article by Hektoen International Journal and Pulse Magazine, “Ladies in Waiting” and “Gentle Men.”
And in part two of his presentation, “Cartoonists take up smoking” Dr. Blum, “retraces the modern history of anti-smoking advocacy as seen through the eyes of newspaper editorial cartoonists. These trenchant works of art have mocked politicians, publishers, and even physicians for being in cahoots with the tobacco industry, but they have also made fun of sanctimonious anti-smoking zealots.”
The second presentation on the panel came from Keith Hopper and Betty Oliver.
Dr. Betty Oliver earned her B.A. in Art, M.A. in Art History, and Ph.D. in Appreciation/Aesthetics from University of Georgia. A member of the graduate faculty, Southern Polytechnic State University, she teaches computer graphics and information graphics in the Information Design and Communication program; also Introduction to Painting in the Media Arts program.
Dr. Keith Hopper earned his Ph.D. in Instructional Technology from Georgia State University after a career in health professions. He is the instructional design-technology specialist for the graduate program in Information and Instructional Design. Dr. Hopper is also a registered respiratory therapist (RRT) and a Fellow of the American Association for Respiratory Care.
Of their presentation, Tension, anxiety and pressure—hypertension is no laughing matter (but laughter helps) they write,”This presentation reports our experience incorporating instructional comics in adult blood pressure measurement, plus lessons learned, and potentials revealed. The state of Georgia, located centrally in the “stroke belt” in U.S. Southern states, has aggressively funded training efforts aimed at community blood pressure trainers, such as pharmacists, firefighters, and EMS workers. Representative is a new online resource with accompanying curriculum, developed by Morehouse School of Medicine with Southern Polytechnic State University technical and design expertise. A supplemental, take-away resource that trainers can give patients and family caregivers was in order and the “comic book” approach we used shows potential.”
The Grassroots Comics site that Dr. Oliver describes, World Comics, is here.
The presentations are followed by an enthusiastic group Q&A.
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