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Medical illustrations can be exact and rigorous, or be conceptual and interpretive. Illustration styles can range from highly technical and detailed to artistic and stylized. Medical illustrations are used in a wide variety of fields that depend on imagery to convey meaning and information. This includes advertising, editorial, institutional, legal, home health, academic, and instructional. Sitting at the forefront in medical advancement and emerging markets, medical illustration is frequently used to convey in a visual form what would be difficult, if not impossible, to convey in written or photographic media. The requirement for an artistic eye combined with technical skill and has continued to make medical illustration a field held in high regard. Medical illustration can trace its roots back to Leonardo da Vinci and beyond. Its rich history is peppered with artistic and scientific luminaries and geniuses that developed the field into an art form of its own. In the early 20th century, the field became more formally established when a young German illustrator named Max Brödel was brought to the US at the request of a prominent surgeon at Johns Hopkins University. Brödel subsequently started a school at the University, the strength and quality of which helped to start a number of other medical illustration curricula at other institutes of higher learning. To date, six major, accredited schools of medical illustration exist in the US and Canada. Brödel’s legacy remains strong at Johns Hopkins, whose medical illustration program is considered to be foremost in the world.[/toggle][toggle] Medical illustrations can be exact and rigorous, or be conceptual and interpretive. Illustration styles can range from highly technical and detailed to artistic and stylized. Medical illustrations are used in a wide variety of fields that depend on imagery to convey meaning and information. This includes advertising, editorial, institutional, legal, home health, academic, and instructional. Sitting at the forefront in medical advancement and emerging markets, medical illustration is frequently used to convey in a visual form what would be difficult, if not impossible, to convey in written or photographic media. The requirement for an artistic eye combined with technical skill and has continued to make medical illustration a field held in high regard. Medical illustration can trace its roots back to Leonardo da Vinci and beyond. Its rich history is peppered with artistic and scientific luminaries and geniuses that developed the field into an art form of its own. In the early 20th century, the field became more formally established when a young German illustrator named Max Brödel was brought to the US at the request of a prominent surgeon at Johns Hopkins University. Brödel subsequently started a school at the University, the strength and quality of which helped to start a number of other medical illustration curricula at other institutes of higher learning. To date, six major, accredited schools of medical illustration exist in the US and Canada. Brödel’s legacy remains strong at Johns Hopkins, whose medical illustration program is considered to be foremost in the world.

Accreditation is a status granted to educational programs that meet or exceed a specific set of criteria for educational quality. The Association of Medical Illustrators developed the first set of educational standards for accreditation and began accrediting programs in 1967. Today, accreditation is awarded by the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Educational Programs (CAAHEP), and the accreditation standards are revised every few years to reflect changes in the profession.

High school students contemplating medical illustration as a career should take a college preparatory program with as much emphasis on art and science as possible. In college, the best program would be a bachelor’s degree with a double major in art and biology, or a major in one and a minor in the other is preferred. Art courses should include drawing, advanced life drawing, painting, color theory, advertising design, illustration, computer graphics, and photography. In the sciences, students should include general biology or zoology, vertebrate anatomy, embryology, physiology, chemistry, and histology. Science courses must be of the caliber required for medical school. source: www.ami.org.