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Some healthcare professionals-especially those working in public health, with young people, or with non-native speakers-have begun to use graphic stories for patient care and education. 1 2 3 One reason this practice is not more widespread is probably because most doctors have not considered its merits. We believe that graphic stories have an important role in patient care, medical education, and the social critique of the medical profession. What follows is an introduction to graphic stories, with some examples of what they are, how and why they work, and how they can enhance teaching and patient care.
Evolution of a medium
Comics have evolved over the past 100 years 4 and are now viewed as a legitimate form of literature. Graphic stories are prominent in bookstores, film, and television, having expanded their audience beyond young people to include serious minded adults keen to learn more about myriad weighty issues ranging from philosophy 5 to political revolutions. 6
Recently, a distinctive sub-genre of graphic stories that we call graphic pathographies- illness narratives in graphic form-has emerged to fill a niche for patients and doctors. These graphic pathographies can be helpful to patients wanting to learn more about their illness and find a community of similarly affected people. Graphic pathographies also provide doctors with new insights into the personal experience of illness (especially regarding concerns patients might not mention in a clinical setting) and misconceptions about disease and treatment that could affect compliance and prognosis.
Graphic pathographies depicting cancer
Among the most compelling examples of graphic pathography in the past few years are Cancer Vixen 7 and Mom's Cancer . 8 Though both chronicle real people's experiences, they have different intended audiences and publication history.
Cancer Vixen is the story of the cartoonist Marisa Acocella Marchetto's personal experience with breast cancer. Editors at Glamour commissioned Cancer Vixen and promoted it as a bestseller with "attitude," targeting a specific readership of fashion conscious, affluent, female urbanites in early to mid-adulthood. Mom's Cancer , by Brian Fies, had a more modest beginning. Written from the caregiver's point of view and serialised on the internet, it documents his mother's metastatic lung cancer. The story was so popular that it won an Eisner award for best digital comic in 2005...