| <No.544> |
| Comics Make Medicine Less Scary for Young Patients |
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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