As part of The Association of Medical Illustrator’s (AMI) commitment to further the use of visual media to advance life sciences, medicine, and healthcare, we are proud to announce the launch of the AMI Diversity Fellowship. Made possible by a grant through Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J) Our Race to Health Equity (ORTHE) initiative, the AMI Diversity Fellowship will seed the creation of a new digital library to expand the depiction of racial and ethnic diversity in medical illustrations.
The Fellowship represents a new investment in medical illustration and in artists themselves. Specifically, the Fellowship will result in the creation of a digital library to showcase a series of illustrations that will reflect skin tone diversity in a variety of patients with different health conditions. This new library will be made available for use by medical educators to train the next generation of healthcare professionals.
In addition, the fellowship will fund and nurture the training and education of ten illustrators of different racial and ethnic backgrounds so that they can help bring awareness to the importance of depicting race and ethnicity in medical illustration. For decades, a majority of the illustrations used in medical education have depicted mostly white, male, able-bodied figures. Through ongoing training, illustrators can help lead and facilitate public conversations about the importance of reflecting diversity in skin color in their work, raising individual and organizational awareness of this sensitivity among colleagues and peers.
The AMI Diversity Fellowship is an important part of a larger initiative by Johnson & Johnson to improve medical education and the clinical training of health care providers, address enduring racial biases in medicine, and promote health equity. Visualizing change is one of several ways to address these disparities. AMI is pleased to invest its expertise in answering this call to action. Through illustration, we can show and “make known” those who have been overlooked and minimized for too long.
The AMI, as the premier association of professionals who create visual media to communicate concepts in medicine, healthcare, and the life sciences, recognizes the impact of visual communications on the people and institutions who use them. We are proud to collaborate on Illustrate Change and launch the AMI Diversity Fellowship to support 10 medical artists in the creation of 100 new medical illustrations representing communities of color. The fellowship is now open for artists to apply.
For 78 years, the AMI has supported the medical illustration community by setting professional standards and promoting the power of visual media to advance scientific discovery and to improve health literacy. AMI is a professional membership organization that hosts education, networking, professional development, and mentoring opportunities for innovators in biomedical visualization.
Please review details of the program, and if you have any questions or feedback, please direct those to AMI President Jill Gregory (president@ami.org) or to AMI Diversity Fellowship Program Manager, Julie Sutter (jsutter@amrms.com).