Indonesian Health Minister Endang Rahayu Sedyaningsih will launch a series of comic books as part of the National Health Day commemoration.
Endang wrote the books with illustrations provided by somebody else. The comics are focused on “healthy habits” this year and the book would be launched at Endang’s elementary school on Nov. 26.
Another example of the role comic books are playing in health care.
The Navy has turned to graphic novels to help hospital corpsmen cope with stress due to war and combat deployments. The Docs: A Graphic Novel focuses on four characters deployed as corpsmen in Iraq. Developed for the Navy Medicine‘s Care for the Caregiver program the story is based on what real corpsmen and Marines face in combat and their personal experiences. The Naval Health Research Center (NHRC) in San Diego developed the book.
Heidi Kraft, a clinical psychologist at the NHRC said:
Many of them are asked to play these dual roles, to function as one of that line unit but when someone is hurt, they are immediately turned to the caregiver role… Data shows our expeditionary corpsmen are struggling with a lot of these issues, and certainly that is not a surprise.” Kraft is also a former lieutenant commander and author of a war memoir, “Rule Number Two: Lessons I Learned in a Combat Hospital.
The goal was to find a way to get through and provide a training tool for the corpsmen and they felt graphic novels and comic books were popular with that age group.
The South African Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative (SATVI) is using comic books to explain to participants who might not be familiar with tuberculosis vaccine clinical trials. The group has published a 12 page booklet to explain it. The story focuses on a woman and her choice or enroll her infant in a TB trial.
Science research is still no understood by many in the country. Myths and superstitions still spread about them. The hope is to increase knowledge and understanding about the process.
The booklet is available in Afrikaans, Xhosa and English.
New Zealand-based Kidzcomics goal is to take complicated medical issues and explain them to kids through comic books. The Medikidz series features five superheroes each of which are experts in a certain part of the body.
Medikidz has covered leukemia, epilepsy, diabetes, HIV and ADHD among other medical issues and it’s goal is to empower children through education and with information they can understand instead of talking down to them. Through that they can hopefully ease the fear surrounding scary medical situations.
All content is written by professional medical writers and doctors and then peer-reviewed. Pricing is GBP 6.99 per comic book.
According to Ryerson University School of Fashion professor and comic book artist David Brame comic books might help in educating young men and their partners about testicular cancer and its early symptoms and encourage them to do more self-screening.
Along with Dr. Peter Chung and Dr. Joyce Nyhof-Young of the Department of Radiation Oncology at Princess Margaret Hospital, and David Kolin, a medical student at the University of Toronto the four individuals have put together a study entitled Ain’t Nothing Comic About It! Educating Young Men about Testicular Cancer: A Resource Development Project.
Brame and his team looked at existing pamphlets to help educate on the subject on testicular cancer and found that illustrated resources were lacking. Often, what does exist is written without the average reader in mind using lots of medical terminology.
Two comic books were created by the team, A Courageous Journey, follows a young man through diagnosis and treatment. It also addresses the many social, economic and psychological issues that patients may face along the way. The second comic book , Testicular Cancer: Screening and Diagnosis, describes the symptoms, how to perform a self-examination and the importance of seeking prompt medical treatment if worrisome changes are noticed.
Surveys showed that the use of the two comic books increased knowledge dramatically. The team stresses that the medical profession needs to find better ways to educate on similar issues and that with better education disease is less likely to advanced unchecked.
According to the Canadian and American Cancer Societies, an estimated 8,900 North American men are diagnosed with testicular cancer each year and about 450 will die from the disease. The most common form of cancer in men aged 15 to 34, testicular cancer is often curable, especially if detected early.
It’s our latest edition of Tuesday Twitter Fun! We’ll have a bonus round later, but folks in the industry were all a twitter with the passage of the health care bill in the House. Below is just a smattering of some of the comments.
Comic artist Brian Denham had the below comment about the progressive nature of our country. You can follow him at http://twitter.com/briandenham.
The man behind much of Marvel Brian Michael Bendis tweeted the news of the passing of the reconciliation bill and also some humor to add to the mix. Follow him at http://twitter.com/BRIANMBENDIS.
Blogger and humorist and comic book fan Jason Serafino laid out the stark reality that is American’s understanding of the health care bill. Find him at http://twitter.com/Serafinoj1.
Brilliant writer Jonathan Hickman comments on what we really care about, our NCAA brackets, http://twitter.com/jhickman.
Comic writer Matt Fraction keeps it short and sweet, http://twitter.com/mattfraction.
Writer Ron Marz asks the hard question we all have on our mind, http://twitter.com/ronmarz.
And comic book writer Tom Peyer reflects on the sadness of the day, http://twitter.com/tompeyer.
Mixed with the usual geeks and nerds that attend the San Diego Comic-Con will be one of a different sort, the political nerd. The 2010 AHA Health Forum Leadership Summit is being held at the Manchester Grand Hyatt, July 22-24, or Thursday-Saturday of the San Diego Comic-Con.
Al Gore, Newt Gingrich, DeeDee Myers, Ken Burns and Freakonomics author Steven D. Levitt will be featured at the event. The AHA’s event made it impossible for convention goers to stay at the Hyatt this year. But that’s not all bad, as the hotel has had a rocky relationship with convention goers.
Comics Beat has more on the hotel’s contentious past as well as the political event. Mixed with the usual Stormtroopers and Twilight fans will be tea baggers and the usual political geeks that attend events like this. Wish I could be there!
Erik Larsen is an artist and writer who’s not afraid to speak his mind when it comes to politics and his Twitter account is evidence of this. This past week Larsen went off on a mini-tweet rant during the health care summit that occurred. He even encourages President Obama and Democrats to use reconciliation to pass a health care bill.
This one is so good Larsen is getting this weeks post all to himself. You can follow Larsen at http://twitter.com/erikjlarsen.
Last week numerous people involved in the comic book industry tweeted their thoughts about the Captain America/Tea Party controversy. This weeks sees some spill over as some of those same people contemplate other issues connected and much more.
Alex Segura isn’t just the publicity manager for DC comics but also a great resource for breaking politics news, http://twitter.com/alex_segura.
Ed Brubaker is one of the great modern comic book writers, http://twitter.com/brubaker.
Gail Simone is also an amazing writer and received a lot of flack for her statements on the controversy, http://twitter.com/GailSimone.
Our new friend Ron Marz decided to chime in on the Sarah Palin/Rahm Emanuel issue, http://twitter.com/ronmarz.
Mark Waid is an amazing writer as well, and decided to speak out about his views on Captain America, http://twitter.com/MarkWaid.
Ben Templesmith is a comic book writer who’s actually worked on a book about American Presidents, http://twitter.com/Templesmith.
