Graphic medicine in the British healthcare industry

This paper outlines a proposal for four categories of graphic medicine production identified in the early stages of an investigation into the use of comics in the UK healthcare industry.

Patient narratives, or “graphic pathographies,” have established themselves within the comics industry as a significant subgenre of graphic memoir. Despite being arguably the most recognisable manifestation of graphic medicine practice, such stories, which frequently adopt a critical stance towards formal healthcare and highlight the alienating effects of navigating bureaucratic systems, are less frequently used within healthcare industries.

What Murray and Nabizadeh, and Horton, have called “public information comics” constitute the primary use of graphic medicine in institutional healthcare. Common aims include informing people with chronic conditions about self-management and alleviating anxiety about surgical and diagnostic procedures among children. These comics portray healthcare workers as compassionate and competent, and healthcare systems as adequate.

Comics by healthcare workers themselves often challenge such portrayals by expressing frustration at the constraints of working within under-resourced infrastructure, and engaging in critical reflection on the quality and appropriateness of interpersonal care. These themes are present in both self-initiated practitioner comics and those elicited from trainee healthcare workers during their professional education. Finally, “graphic facilitation,” a form of large-format live visual recording, focuses more on what Sibbet has called “public listening,” by aiming to create records of how healthcare infrastructure is negotiated and maintained by groups of stakeholders.

The presentation will substantiate these summaries with reflections drawn from interviews with graphic medicine practitioners representing each category.