A Range of Medical Illustrations for eLearning Modules

The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh is the oldest and largest of the UK surgical Royal Colleges, and one of the largest of all the UK medical Royal Colleges. First incorporated as the Barber Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1505, the College has been at the vanguard of surgical innovation and developments for over 500 years.

Today the Royal College of Surgeons is a modern, thriving, global network of medical professionals with memberships approaching 25,000 professionals who live and work in more than 100 countries around the world. 15,000 of these live and work in the UK and 80% of that figure are based in England and Wales. Their membership includes people at every stage of their career, from medical students through to trainees, consultants and those who have retired from practice.

Creation of Medical Illustrations

The Royal College of Surgeons commissioned the team at Medical-Artist.com to work on completing medical art for an eLearning system. The large number of illustrations are to be completed over a minimum 12 month period and will complete a series of modules.  Each module is to cover varying anatomical content with briefs supplied by the clinical leads or surgeons. The briefs contain a detailed written descriptions ready for the creation of custom illustrations, whereby the new illustrations are incorporated into the eLearning modules ready to enhance the written content for use as an internal educational system. The illustrations to have a perfect level of anatomical accuracy and in order to do this the illustration process follows a system of pencil drawings that are sent for review. The approved pencil drawings are then scanned and completed as full colour and realism style illustrations.

Examples of Modules

Dyspepsia Dysphagia and Vomiting e-select module

We were commissioned to produce oesophagus anatomy illustrations and the development of the Gi mortality illustration including gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GORD) which is a very common condition and refers to the refluxing of gastric contents into the oesophagus.

We were to show how the gastro-oesophageal reflux becomes pathological when the symptoms become severe or chronic and when there are signs of mucosal damage. There are a number of secondary causes or risk factors including obesity, smoking, alcohol, hiatus hernia, oesophageal dysmotility and a number of medical comorbidities. The anatomy illustrations to also include a range of hernias’s and a sliding hiatus hernia that disrupt the lower oesophageal sphincter.

Female Breast and Breast Conditions e-select module

Breast conditions such as juvenile fibroadenoma were to be illustrated which is a mass found in teenage women. These can grow large enough to distort the breast. The illustration needed to depict a normal breast size for a teenager and to show the comparison fibroadenoma in the opposite breast.