Medical illustrator facts for kids

A medical illustrator or medical artist is an artist that professionally works to use art to help to explain and record knowledge related to biology and medicine. They don't only make these things, but they can also work as consultants or administrators in the field of biocommunication. They make medical pictures using original and modern ways of doing things. These pictures appear in textbooks and advertisements about medicine, as well as professional journals and videos made to help instruct people in various medical procedures.

History

Medical pictures or diagrams have been made for hundreds of years or longer. Many of these pictures or diagrams look different than the ones that we see today because they were based on the studies of the scholars of that period in time rather than observing the thing that they wanted to draw directly.

As a job, medical illustration has a more recent history. In the late 1890s, Max Brödel, who was an artist from Leizpig, was brought to the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine to draw pictures for several notable clinicians, including Harvey Cushing, William Halstead, and Howard Kelly.

Max Brödel also made several new techniques for drawing medical pictures, such as carbon dust. He also looked over the making of first academic department of medical illustration, which is still active today.

Images for kids

• 

  Illustration from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of a normal heart.