| <No.544> |
| Comics Make Medicine Less Scary for Young Patients |
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Medications are the heroes
and allergens become villains
in the Iggy and The Inhalers series.
Alex Thomas, a pediatric allergist at the University of Wisconsin,
uses this video and other comics
he created with his partner
for his asthma patients.
"What we're trying to do is
insert scientific information into those metaphors
so that kids are excited to be learning about super heroes
and learning about super villains,
and all of their strengths and weaknesses
without kind of realizing that
they are actually leaning about asthma triggers,
the correct use of medications,
and the mechanisms of action."
There are no significant statistics yet
on the effectiveness of comics
as an educational tool,
but Thomas says his tests show promising results.
"For example, one of the questions was, you know what,
how does a 'Bronchodilator' work
as a type of asthma medication.
And before a comic book,
18 percent kids got it right.
After the comic book,
68 percent kids got it right."
The use of comics is not limited to children.
Brian Kloss is an emergency medicine physician
at SUNY Upstate Medical University in New York.
He recently published 'Toxicology in a Box.'
It contains 150 flashcards
he uses to teach medical students
to recognize and treat drug overdoses and poisonings.
The Comics and Medicine conference included sessions
where doctors learned about using comics
in their practices and workshops
on how to draw them.
"I use them a lot
in my teaching with medical students
as a way of helping explore various themes
that I think are really important for doctors
understanding the patients experience of illness
and how to understand complicated stories."
Comics are still a small part of the healing arts,
but doctors who use them say
they play an increasingly important role.
Amy Katz, VOA News |
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