The storytellers of science
University program provides foundation for Toronto’s dominance of medical illustration
They have the brains of doctors and the eyes of artists.
Medical illustrators, once restricted to drawing black and white textbook diagrams, are 21st-century translators of science. They now create video games, iPhone apps and even 3D animations to communicate scientific ideas to surgeons, students and patients alike.
And according to a North American tally, Toronto is their home base.
Toronto has more medical illustrators than any city on the continent, according to membership statistics kept by the Association of Medical Illustrators, the field’s biggest professional organization.
With 48 members in Toronto, the closest Canadian city is Montreal with one member. Chicago is the next closest city with 30. This doesn’t come as a surprise to those in the biz.
“It’s mainly due to the concentration of human resources — the people trained to work in the field,” said Marc Dryer, the acting chair of the University of Toronto’s biomedical communications program.
Toronto is the lone place in Canada to study medical illustration at the graduate level, and U of T is one of only four universities that teach it in North America.
Last year, 67 science undergrads applied to the biomedical communication masters program by mailing in art portfolios alongside transcripts. Only 16 made the cut. Accepted students study medical science for two years while simultaneously honing their artistic chops in classes such as “Neuroanatomy for Visual Communication.”
The industry has departed from its ink and paper roots. U of T students now learn how to make 3D animations, educational games and interactive apps.
After graduation, many flock from the Mississauga campus to Toronto’s downtown hub of competitive studios.
“Toronto has become a global neighbourhood of sorts for medical illustration. A lot of our students start their own businesses here,” Dryer said.
On a recent Thursday at AXS Studio, near Spadina Ave. and Queen St. W., a team of nine illustrators clacked away on keyboards, each working on their own project.
A 3D chicken embryo floated in a digital womb on the computer of Joyce Hui, one of the illustrators. The animation was part of a video commissioned by the Australian government, which will help teach young Aussie students how an embryo becomes an egg in just 21 days.
“The chicken and egg thing, we figured that out,” joked Jason Sharpe, the studio’s co-founder.
Sharpe, a graduate of the U of T program in 2003, has found success in Toronto. His team has jumped from its three original creators to nine illustrators in just nine years.
Alarge part of this growth has to do with their sales; a two to three-month project can go for $30,000 to $100,000. But for what, exactly? “When people ask that question, I tell them we’re storytellers,” Sharpe said. “The public, for the large part, is scientifically illiterate. We try to change that with every project.”
They’ve been commissioned by TV shows, drug companies, hospitals and universities to animate nearly every facet of science. They’ve digitally rendered stem cells, deadly viruses and new drugs.
The audience determines the language used in each project, Sharpe explained. When designing for patients, AXS deletes some of the clunky scientific jargon that doctors might use.
“But we don’t take away visual details — removing detail doesn’t improve understanding,” Sharpe explained. “We’re showing a really fascinating visual world and the rich detail really helps in story telling. It engages a sense of wonder.”
Just around the corner, near King St. W. and Portland Ave., a larger team of medical illustrators is at work.
Invivo is Toronto’s biggest medical illustration studio, with 80 employees and 15 medical animators. The rest are software developers, designers and accountants.
The sun-drenched studio has a laidback vibe, with a beer fridge and plenty of friendly dogs sniffing around the office. But when it comes to their modus operandi, Invivo is intense.
“What we do changes every six months, we stay on the cutting edge,” said Andrea Bielecki, the company’s president. “Things don’t get boring here.” When the iPad launched, Invivo jumped, hiring a slew of Apple developers. They have since created apps for hospitals and major American drug companies to help educate doctors, surgeons and pharmaceutical sales representatives. One of Bielecki’s favourite projects was the GIST Explorer, a free iPad app that educates doctors on gastrointestinal stromal tumours, a rare cancer.
“It’s like a virtual colonoscopy, if you will. You can explore the colon, the intestines, click on tumours and perform fake biopsies. It’s a tool for physicians that’s using 3D principles of gaming, and it’s an app,” she said. “It was cool to educate the surgeons.”
Medical gaming has come a long way in a decade; when Invivo first started designing games in 2003, they called them IETs — interactive educational tools.
“They were not considered legitimate if we called it a game,” she said, pointing out that medical games now make up a quarter of their business. “It’s still in its infancy, but it’s certainly more accepted.”
The next frontier is developing apps that can monitor a patient’s health, otherwise known as “the quantified self.” It could radically change the way people monitor their health, said Kevin Millar, Invivo’s vice president of production.
“These programs have the ability to track metrics and information about yourself that you may not otherwise be able to find,” Millar said.
“If you’re taking a drug, you can better anticipate how effective it is working.”
Invivo sees itself as a global leader when it comes to medical digital media. Unlike AXS, Invivo would not reveal how much they make from a typical project.
“Let’s just say it’s a premium product,” Bielecki said.
In her eyes, Toronto is the world capital of medical illustration and animation.
“It’s really two things that make this such a great city for medical illustrators. Toronto is great tech hub, and the (U of T biomedical communications) program — I attribute it to those two factors,” Bielecki said. “This really is the centre of the business.”