Sequential Medical Communication: Demonstrative evidence for the courtroom, 2023

Medical Legal Illustration

This group project on Pedestrian Car Accident illustration was divided into four separate panels, namely Mechanism of Injury, Trauma Panel, Surgical Treatment, and Long-term Complications. I was responsible for the trauma panel.

Client

Stephen Mader (Biomedical Communications Professor, University of Toronto)

Role

Research, Digital Illustration

Tools

Sketchbook®
Figma

Circumstances of Injury

The 61-year-old female patient, with a higher BMI, suffered a valgus flexion injury to her right knee when an SUV struck her on her left side, causing her left leg to go up in the air and rendering her unable to get up.

Injury sustained

Large severely comminuted fracture of the lateral tibial plateau with pronounced diastases of numerous fracture fragments.

Surgery

ORIF (Open Reduction and Internal Fixation) of right tibial plateau fracture, failure of posterolateral fragment reduction.
Definitive stabilization ORIF of the right tibial plateau.

Complications

Post-Traumatic Arthritis.

Gathering Reference Materials and Planning

At this stage, the team did not yet have access to case medical imaging, and based on the experts' reports, I started to plan the content and layout of the future exhibit. For descriptive imagery the shape of the object informs composition, so I decided to focus on the knee joint and the fracture site, supplementing the exhibit with CT data to enhance credibility.

Concept Sketch

Upon receiving medical imaging data and instructor feedback, I added insets showing meniscus damage, included preliminary captions and labels, and introduced color to guide the reader's eye.

Tight Sketch

After getting feedback and approval of the concept sketch, I sharpened the details, refined captions, developed a rendering style.

Final Graphic

Based on feedback from peers and Prof. Stephen Mader, I finalized the rendering style, including skin color, improved text hierarchy and label-image interaction, refined leader lines, and added a plane showing the location of the menisci.

Back to portfolio

References:

Agur A. M. R. & Dalley A. F. (2017). Grant's atlas of anatomy (Edition 14). Wolters Kluwer.
Christiansen, J. (2022). Building Science Graphics: An Illustrated Guide to Communicating Science through Diagrams and Visualizations (1st ed.). A K Peters/CRC Press. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003217817
Mader, S., Wilson-Pauwels, L., Nancekivell, S., Lax, L., Agur, A.M., & Mazierski, D.M. (2005). Medical-legal Illustrations, Animations and Interactive Media: Personal Injury Lawyers' Perceptions of Effective Attributes.
Jain AK. Surgical Treatment of Orthopaedic Trauma: A Comprehensive Text and Video Guide. Indian J Orthop. 2018 Mar-Apr;52(2):214. doi: 10.4103/ortho.IJOrtho_76_18. PMCID: PMC5858220.
Ricciardi A. Thieme Atlas of Anatomy: General Anatomy and Musculoskeletal System. Yale J Biol Med. 2015 Mar 4;88(1):100. PMCID: PMC4345527.

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