This interview is with Ni-ka, a Black medical illustrator, discussing the importance of diversity and representation in her field. Ni-ka shares how her identity as a Black artist influences her approach to creating accurate and inclusive medical visuals. She also explains the role medical illustrations can play in addressing healthcare disparities and improving patient education and trust. The conversation covers the challenges Ni-ka faces in finding diverse reference materials, as well as her hopes for more funding and awareness to support diversity in medical illustration. Ni-ka also provides advice for aspiring artists interested in entering the medical illustration industry.
How does your identity as a black illustrator influence your approach to creating accurate visuals?
I think identity is a huge part of who we are and what we do, and that always comes through in our work. It heavily impacts the kind of work that I create and the kind of work that I'm passionate about. I'm passionate about creating diverse medical illustrations because I know that they help improve the perception in and of my community in a positive way. Even in school while getting my graduate degree in medical illustration I noticed the lack of diversity in my course materials and textbooks. Being a Black medical illustrator, I wanted to see myself reflected in these materials. Now as a medical illustrator practicing professionally, that's one of my main focuses, to bring more diverse representation to the work that I'm creating.
You mentioned education. We know that there are disparities in healthcare as a whole. How do you see medical illustrations playing a role in addressing the issues of things like patient education and understanding?
It affects both sides, the patient side and the provider side. I'll talk about the provider side first. I think that when you have a medical student who's going through training to become a healthcare provider and they're exposed to more diverse representation whether it's photography or the medical illustrations in their coursework material, it helps them not only foster more empathy for different kinds of patients but also gives them the ability to be able to recognize how certain conditions present differently on darker skin. It's a two-fold thing, I do think it greatly enhances empathy and respect for other people while also improving how they practice medicine through more accurate and effective provider care for the patient. They’re able to understand how and why some diseases or conditions may look different on someone with a different skin tone than what is normally depicted. I think that's where a lot of the healthcare disparities come in; the delayed diagnosis or misdiagnosis of particular conditions. So I definitely think that medical education plays a role in teaching healthcare providers how to actually provide accurate patient education. And then as far as patients, I think that when they see themselves reflected in the materials, it improves health literacy and retention of the material because they're more engaged with it. It also leads to them feeling like they can trust their healthcare provider more when they feel like they're being recognized and seen.
When you’re in academic settings, is it difficult to have those conversations and essentially convince people that there’s importance to how these illustrations are being represented? How hard are those conversations?
From my personal experience, they haven’t been too hard because I think that people are starting to recognize and wake up to how important it is. Luckily, I haven't had many experiences where I had to really push for more representation. I feel like when it was discussed, it was always well received. I even had some clients sometimes who would actually say, “I'd like this to be represented on a Black woman.” It’s pleasing for me to hear that the client or the person I’m working with already recognizes that there's a lack of representation that needs to be addressed.
What would you say is the biggest challenge you’ve faced?
The initial process of creating work is sometimes difficult because as a medical illustrator, I always use reference material and I also do a lot of preliminary research before I create an illustration for accuracy. There's a very high technical side to this kind of work. The biggest challenge for me has been finding accurate references. There’s a huge lack of diversity in medical and health information in photography. Getting a wide variety of photo references of people with various skin tones, especially in dermatology, is a main area where I've had difficulty. If I'm depicting a certain skin condition and I can't find any resources online because it's always on lighter and fair skin, it’s very difficult for me to even know how it should look. So that definitely has been my main hurdle. The resources already out there for me to use to help me identify or understand how a condition should look are quite limited for darker skin tones.
What changes would you like to see in the medical illustration industry over the next 10 years?
I think that more widespread awareness is always a good thing. I think that more funding for projects related to bringing diversity to this kind of work is needed. That's mostly because, as I mentioned before, people are starting to recognize that it is a global issue and a problem that we need to address. If people want to take the initiative to change that, there should be adequate and allocated funding to back it up. As an artist, like all artists, I want to be respected and compensated for my time and my efforts. I do feel like awareness is important as a first step to recognizing the role medical illustration plays in healthcare. After recognizing how important that role is, more initiatives and funding for projects to help medical illustrators create more work like this would be the next step.
How can someone with an interest in science and art break into this industry?
There are a lot of different avenues you can take to get into the field. There's the traditional route of going to graduate school for a master's in medical illustration and there are other ways of acquiring the knowledge and skills needed. For example, if it was someone who is already established as an artist or scientist, the focus should be on gaining that knowledge base on the other side. So if you're an artist, definitely learn more about the anatomy and functions of the human body and cell biology. If you're a scientist, take some art classes. I think that one of the most important things to do in this field is to understand how to accurately draw from life. Figure drawing classes are a great start. You can find figure drawing classes in your local city and they're not expensive. This will help with understanding the human form which is very important. The Association of Medical Illustrators website ami.org has lots of information and resources about entering the field.