Part Time Student Jennifer Collins

There are a considerable number of part time students within the Visual Communications division and it’s always interesting to learn more about their working lives outside University. Jennifer Collins is enjoying studying within the second year of the Graphic Communication course. Here is an insight into her working life:
What is my role as a Medical Illustrator? 

A medical illustrator is a professional artist or photographer with extensive additional training in medicine and science who creates visual material to help record and disseminate medical, biological and related knowledge. Medical illustrators not only produce this material but function as consultants and administrators within the field of bio-medical communication. 

What type of work do we do? 

We provide an extensive Clinical and Non-clinical Illustration service at The Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals NHS Trust, also covering the Princess Royal Hospital, Telford and The Royal Shrewsbury Hospital. Our emphasis is based around the patient experience, ensuring the patients' visit to hospital is as informed as possible. We achieve this by producing up to date patient information leaflets, creating informative poster demonstrations to alert the public to any current issues within the hospital and generating the trust newsletter, spreading information, good news and achievements of individuals and departments within the trust. We aim to keep our users up-to-date with current activities within individual departments and the trust as a whole. 

Medical illustrations, whether photographs or other illustration media, are used as an aid to diagnosis or a record of a patients condition. 

They can appear in:-
• patient records and other related clinical work
• medico-legal photography for solicitors and the police, these can be used as evidence in court cases or to support claims for compensation.
• medical textbooks,
• multi-media educational presentations
• medical advertisements,
• professional journals,
• instructional video tapes and films,
• computer-assisted learning programs,
• exhibits,
• lecture presentations,
• web design,
• learning resources,
• general magazines
• programs for television. 

A growing demand by patients to better understand their own bodies and medical options has expanded the need for medical illustration. In addition, increased need for medical illustrations and models to educate juries during courtroom presentations has expanded the medical-legal subspecialty of medical illustration.