Drawing for Visual Communication in Medicine: A Novel Pilot Course for Senior Medical Students

Visual aids such as drawings have been reported to improve patient comprehension, retention, and adherence. We sought to determine the feasibility of teaching live drawing for clinical communication to medical students. We designed a course to teach basic drawing skills and visual communication of health information to senior medical students. Data was gathered from both an intervention and control group via written pre- and post-course surveys. The intervention group also completed a survey six months after the course. The course was offered as an elective at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine during February 2020. The intervention group consisted of 17 enrolled students, while 17 students not taking the course served as a control group. Third year, fourth year, and research year medical students were invited to enroll in the course. The intervention group had significantly greater comfort with visual communication for patient care and increased objective drawing and visual communication scores compared to the control group. Visual abilities not targeted by the curriculum did not change between the intervention and control groups. At 6-months follow-up, course participants reported persistently elevated comfort in visual communication, as well as utilization of visual communication skills in their clinical practice. These data provide initial evidence of the efficacy of an elective course aimed at developing the skill and confidence to draw for visual communication in medicine as well as support for continued efforts to further develop and disseminate this type of curriculum.