Excellent communication is no longer an optional skill for medical doctors. Doctors, nurses, pharmacists and any health professional that interact directly with patients and the public need to master communication. It's unacceptable that a patient leave the examination room or the clinic without being 100% sure of what the doctor said, or going back home full of doubts due to misunderstanding. This is even more critical for doctor who teach at medical schools, universities or give public talks in medical conferences. You don't want to sound unprofessional, or to leave your audience with a bad impression, isn't it true? The same happens with visual communication! In the current days, learning how to use charts, images and create presentation slides are critical skill to thrive in the professional world. Medicine is very competitive, and if you wanna become a speaker for the pharmaceutical industry or to be recognized as a good professor, better use the best resources available on your classes and presentations. Look at this example below of an infographic made with mind the graph showing the female ovulation and menstrual cycle: There are a number of ways why doctors are increasingly using appealing and powerful images to communicate. Ultimately, this is a great aid to improve health literacy. So, let’s see 5 ways to use scientific illustrations and infographics in health science: 1) To improve patient understanding Picture-based health care communication aids improve patient care Family members who cannot speak due to stroke, brain injury, autism or other disability, experience greater stress and anxiety during their hospital stays. The same happen with low income patients that don’t understand the complex wording often used by medical doctors. A study found that using healthcare communication boards with care-related pictures and symbols improved patient satisfaction, reduced frustration, and improved outcomes for adults who have difficulty speaking or reading. Several medical commissions now recommends that hospitals and rehab facilities offer communication aids to improve patient-provider communication for patients who need them. Look at these examples from a paper validating the use of pictorial communication for low income diabetes patients https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4213261/ 2) To teach better classes (medical education) It is not easy to catch attention from our students and give an interesting and informative class. Visual content is a great tool to help in this process. Beautiful images are eye-catching and easier to understand at a first glance. For example, look at this illustration that shows how to do the surgeon knot procedure: Also, look this presentation of neurology and Parkinson disease: 3) To delivery professional presentations Illustrations are more friendly to show harsh procedures like surgeries. Most of people don't like to see blood and sectioned bodies, so you can use illustrations to smooth the impact of such scenes. You don't wanna scary the audience of your presentations, do you? Look at this example of illustrations of bone regeneration: We have many surgical illustrations. Take a look at some of them: We also offer many templates, so our users don’t need to start from a black canvas. Look this template of a bladder hemicystectomy: 4) Excel in Scientific communication - Medical writing Medical writing is a critical skill for those working with scientific research, clinical research and medical products development. Everybody knows about that. However, what no one taught you in the university is that simply writing a proper English and use medical jargon is not enough. To write a medical paper that is actually read and cited you must include figures, charts and perhaps… infographics! If you don't believe us, learn the truth in this article by the Economist. 5) Personal marketing Presence in the internet is essential for the modern professional. Your clinic, the hospital where you work, the university where you teach, your research group or even just your own personal professional page. Personal branding is a thing, these days. Reputable professionals are found in the internet when people look for their content. Create awesome content for your website and be found. The internet search for infographics is increasingly high! Create online reputation by using incredible medical figures to illustrate your work. A picture is worth a thousand words However, we know that it's very difficult to communicate visually, if you don't have the right resources and skills. Infographic design is not something we learn in the medical school and graphical designers or illustrations are not around every time. So, how could I as a medical doctor create attractive figures for my classes and presentations? How do I create interesting schemes or charts for my research paper? Mind the Graph is an infographic platform where you can do this all, without having to learn graphic design from zero. You don't have time to spend looking for figures in the internet, and of course, you are aware that stealing someone else's figures will render copyright problems. To understand the risks of using pictures from Google on your presentations, classes and papers, look at this article. Don't expose yourself to this risk. Beyond that, most illustrations found on look don’t look professional and can compromise your work. I searched by swiss mouse illustration on google and this is what I found: The same search made on mind the graph: Use a platform where you can easily combine high-quality medical images to create slides for presentations and classes and look very professional. Mind the Graph is a platform designed by scientists for scientists and you can feel the difference. It's easy to use and yield professional results. Very smooth experience and thousands of images for Life Science and Health. Using mind the graph you can create online all the graphical abstracts, infographics and presentations you need. It is a DIY platform that empower you as a scientist and doctor to communicate better your knowledge. And if you need a specific illustration and don’t find it in mind the graph you can request it at no extra cost. It’s a great feature to get specific illustrations of medical procedures that aren’t available on google. Here you can see all the benefits of using mind the graph. Disclaimer: All the figures used in this text were created with an incredible tool that you'll love. Mind the Graph is a platform that allow non-designers to create visual content like a PRO. Try Mind the Graph (mindthegraph.com) and engage your audience and patients with attracting slides and medical images. Becoming a better communicator, you become a better doctor and a better professor! What are you waiting for? Click here to access and try it for free at mindthegraph.com
