What is a Medical Illustrator?
A medical illustrator is an artist, and content developer who is trained to visually depict aspects of medicine and science. Medical illustrators come from differing backgrounds, and they may have undergraduate degrees in fine arts, science, or various other specialties.
The Association of Medical Illustrators, AMI, was instituted to maintain the standards for training in medical illustration and to provide ethical guidelines for practice:
AMI Headquarters
1819 Peachtree Street, N.E., Suite 620
Atlanta, Georgia 30309 U.S.A.
(404) 350-7900, Fax: (404) 351-3348
Many illustrators go on to earn Master's degrees in medical illustration. There are five programs in North America that provide Master's degrees in medical illustration. The programs listed below are accredited by the AMI:
University of Toronto
Division of Biomedical Communications
Located on two campuses at the University of Toronto:
U of T Mississauga Campus
Room 308, Terrence Donnelly Health Sciences Complex
3359 Mississauga Road North
Mississauga, ON Canada L5L 1C6
Phone: 905-569-4849
Fax: 905-569-4847
U of T St. George Campus
Room 75, Fitzgerald Building
150 College Street
Toronto ON Canada M5S 3E2
Phone: 416-978-2659
Dept. of Medical Illustration
Georgia Health Sciences University
1120 15th Street, CJ1101
Augusta, GA 30912-0300
Phone: 706-721-3266
Fax: 706-721-7855
University of Illinois
Department of Biomedical Visualization
College of Associated Health Professions
University of Illinois at Chicago
1919 W. Taylor Street, Room 213, M/C 527
Chicago, Illinois 60612
Tel: (312) 996-4975
Fax: (312) 996-8342
(312) 996-7337
Medical and Biological Illustration Graduate Program
Department of Art as Applied to Medicine
The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
1830 E. Monument Street, Suite 7000
Baltimore, Maryland 21205-2100
Tel: (410) 955-3213
Fax: (410) 955-1085
The University of Texas-Southwestern Medical School-Dallas
Biomedical Communications Graduate Program
Dept. of Health Care Sciences
The University of Texas
Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas
5323 Hines Blvd.
Dallas, Texas 75235-8881
Tel: (214) 648-4699
Fax: (214) 648-5353
The United Kingdom has an organization for medical illustrators as well:
Institute of Medical Illustration UK
