Graphic medicine texts now available at Health Sciences Library
The Health Sciences Library offers a new collection of 22 graphic medicine titles available for checkout. Available titles are listed in the Graphic Medicine at VCU guide. These are part of VCU Libraries’ general collection and can be checked out by anyone in the VCU community. The guide also includes links to webcomics and resources for learning more about graphic medicine as a communication medium in healthcare.
Graphic medicine texts are comics about health care issues and topics. They provide a voice to those less heard, help readers understand patient and caregiver experiences, make challenging topics more approachable, and are used as a tool in medical education classes to foster critical thinking and observational skills.
“Cabell’s collection has included comic books for a long time,” said Karen Gau, health sciences collections librarian. “Over here in the general collection we traditionally collect advanced study-level materials or research materials. We are very selective about anything other than that. So this was new for us but it was also really important because within the Health Sciences field [graphic medicine] has been really popular for some time now. It’s been something that people find useful as a different way of communicating about topics like patient experiences.”
The books for the library’s collection were selected based on feedback from other health sciences libraries with graphic medicine collections, as well as considering bibliographies and book reviews. The Health Sciences Library will be evaluating the collection’s use over the coming years to determine whether to expand it.
Here’s a sample of the titles available:
- The Bad Doctor tells the story of a doctor who doubts his ability to make decisions about the lives of others when he may need more than a little help himself.
- Aliceheimer’s: Alzheimer’s Through the Looking Glass is a graphic memoir of the author’s experiences of her mother’s battle with dementia. The narrative illustrates the two-way nature of storytelling as a process that heals both the giver and the receiver of the story.
- Clinical Ethics, designed for the classroom, introduces medical ethics and presents case studies.
- In Cancer Vixen: A True Story, a New York City cartoonist recounts her 11-month bout with breast cancer, from diagnosis to cure, chronicling her high-powered Manhattan lifestyle and her romances along the way.
This collection approaches various topics from every perspective, patient, doctor, and caretaker alike. It provides insight into the ethics surrounding patient autonomy, informed consent and unconscious bias, and looks into issues ranging from fertility struggles to the opioid crisis, health care reform, and everything in between. The collection is helpful for anyone wanting to gain a better understanding of conditions or to feel connected to others who have similar experiences to themselves.
Categories Comic Arts, Health Sciences, Health Sciences LIbrary