Vesalius Trust 2021 grant and scholarship recipients

The Master of Science in Biomedical Communications is pleased to announce that the following graduate students have been awarded Vesalius Trust research grants and scholarships:

Vesalian Scholars

Margot Riggi
Willow Yang

Vesalius Trust Research Grantees

Katrina Hass
Ava Schroedl
Martin Shook

The Vesalius Trust provides grant funding to students enrolled in medical illustration programs and who have completed one year of the curriculum. These competitive grants are awarded annually and help fund the students' research projects and masters’ theses.

Congratulations to these deserving recipients!

2021 BMC speaker series: Ivan Phelan, Senior Research Fellow and Game Developer at Sheffield Hallam University

How Engaging Content can Aid Rehabilitation and Reduce Pain

Virtual Reality is generally viewed as a technology only for entertainment purposes, but in recent times it has shown incredible potential in the area of healthcare. There has been previous research into how effective it is with pain distraction. ImpactVR at Sheffield Hallam University has been exploring how the new advancements in VR hardware and development tools can produce innovative healthcare interventions.

This talk will discuss work that spans a wide area from pain distraction, upper and lower limb rehabilitation, and prosthetic training systems. It will provide insights into how the systems were designed and developed along with details on ImpactVR’s next project.

Date and Time:
Friday, April 9, 2021
2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. ET
(One-hour presentation followed by a question-and-answer session)

Missed the presentation? View the video recording here:
https://vimeo.com/537387278/941733b6ef

The road less travelled–BMC Speakers Series 2021 full program: https://bmc.med.utoronto.ca/news-events/2021/1/31/the-road-less-travelledbmc-speaker-series-2021


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Ivan Phelan works as a Senior Research Fellow in Sheffield Hallam’s Research Institute (Centre for Culture, Media and Society) where his research focus is on how Virtual Reality can be used in healthcare.

Ivan's primary area of expertise is with the Unreal game engine which is a great tool to create high-quality game content.

He is currently involved with multiple VR projects funded by NIHR and the MRC, exploring virtual reality training for upper limb prosthetics, pain distraction during burn treatments, and rehab for children after arm injuries and lower limb surgery.

2021 BMC speaker series: Ryan Green, Creative Director and Head of Narrative at Numinous Games

Ryan Green, Creative Director and Head of Narrative at Numinous Games.

Ryan Green, Creative Director and Head of Narrative at Numinous Games.

The Stories Written into Us

Ryan will talk about how the stories he didn't write, the ones that he had no control over, have shaped his work and his studio’s journey. He will speak on how he sees the root of empathetic design being a journey of compassion and consideration, and how video game technology can unlock new forms of expression and connection for artists, designers, players, and patients.


Date and Time:
March 26, 2021
2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. ET
(One-hour presentation followed by Q&A.)

Missed the presentation? View the video recording here:
https://vimeo.com/534511692

The road less travelled–BMC Speakers Series 2021 full program: https://bmc.med.utoronto.ca/news-events/2021/1/31/the-road-less-travelledbmc-speaker-series-2021


Ryan is a digital interactive artist, programmer, and video game designer currently focused on narrative VR, serious, and accessible games. The first decade of his career was spent as a UI/UX designer, programmer, and software architect for Davita Healthcare, a Fortune 500 company. Ryan currently serves as a Creative Director and Head of Narrative for Numinous Games, a studio he co-founded in 2012. 

Numinous Games’ first title, That Dragon, Cancer, was created as a poetic memorial to Ryan and his wife Amy's third son Joel, and Joel's fight against terminal brain cancer. That Dragon, Cancer went on to receive broad critical praise, winning a BAFTA award in 2017 for innovation as well as a 2016 Peabody / Facebook Futures of Media award.

A still from That Dragon, Cancer. Watch the trailer on YouTube.

A still from That Dragon, Cancer. Watch the trailer on YouTube.

BMC 75 Online Gallery–Call for Submissions

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Calling all BMC medical illustrators!

In celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Biomedical Communications program (formerly known as Art as Applied to Medicine) at the University of Toronto, we are organizing a juried virtual exhibition and catalogue of work that spans the history of the program. We invite alumni to contribute their work to this collection.

We are organizing the exhibit and catalogue along the theme of disruptors and have identified three areas on which we’d like to focus:

D1–Societal disruptors

Our focus here is on societal changes that may have impacted our approach to illustration either based on response to change or increase in demand resulting from the impact of societal disruption; for example World War II, the women’s liberation movement, the equal rights movement, Truth and Reconciliation, the Accessible Canada Act, the equity, diversity and inclusion movement, climate change, and COVID-19.

D2–Scientific, Pharmaceutical, and Medical Innovations

Here we are concerned with advances that have impacted our understanding of medicine and greatly enhanced our ability to depict human health and disease; examples of this include advances in imaging technologies, surgical techniques, marketing changes in the pharmaceutical industry, growing awareness of non-Western medical practices, and patient-centred medicine.

D3–Visual Communication Mediums and Technology

These perturbations we tend to recognize more readily as they directly impact our workflow, and include innovation in traditional techniques such as carbon dust or airbrush, print technologies, computer graphics (2D and 3D), interactive design (remember Hypercard?), the World Wide Web, video technologies, extended reality (AR and VR), and 3D-printing.

We are accepting submissions between March 8 and March 31.

Formatting

Work in the form of illustration, animation, or interactive environments may be submitted under each of these categories (D1, D2, D3). Before considering a submission, please ensure that you have the right to share this work and for it to be included in a virtual exhibition. Submissions should be formatted as follows:

File naming convention: LastName_Initial_abridgedfilename_category

Static media

Resolution – 300 ppi; Dimensions – width no more than 2550 ppi; and height no more than 3300 ppi; Colour – CMYK.

Animation or video

Animation and video should be at least HD quality, and up to 4K in resolution. Please provide the highest quality files you can easily transfer to us. Professional mastering formats such as ProRes are preferred.

Interactive media

A representative screencast highlighting the work should be submitted, preferably with an explanatory voiceover. Video should be formatted as per the video requirements above.

All animation and video entries should include a representative image following the image requirements described above.

All entries, both static and dynamic should include a separate figure caption providing both the name of the piece, medium, and additional details and any anecdotal information you might like to include.

How to submit

All submissions should be uploaded via the UTSend dropbox at send.utoronto.ca.

Provide your name and e-mail address; the recipient name and email (Graduate Program Administrator at bmc.info@utoronto.ca), and select the files to upload. If the files are successfully received, an email is sent to the recipient indicating that a drop-off has been made.

Please note that there is a 1 GB limit to file size on UTSend. If you have a larger file that you’d like to share please contact us at bmc.info@utoronto.ca and we will make other arrangements.

On behalf of the BMC 75th Anniversary committee we look forward to receiving your work!

2021 BMC speaker series: Carrie Shaw, CEO and founder of Embodied Labs

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New worlds in medical visualization: transforming care and service by embodying a first-person patient perspective through immersive technology

After graduating from UNC Chapel Hill with a B.S. in public health, Carrie spent two years working as a Peace Corps health education volunteer in the Dominican Republic. There she fell in love with the way visual communication tools have the unique potential to cross cultural, language and educational barriers. Following that time, Carrie worked as primary caregiver to her mother, whose diagnosis of early onset Alzheimer's disease opened Carrie's eyes to the needs of caregivers and the aging-services workforce.  

Carrie completed a Master of Science in Biomedical Visualization at the University of Illinois Chicago in 2016.  Though she initially was enrolled in a Ph.D. program to continue studying the cognitive science of embodied cognition and healthcare education, the program's funding was cut. So, Carrie founded Embodied Labs and pursued commercialization of work that originated from her graduate master's thesis.  Since then, her company’s work has been featured by The New York Times, Oprah Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, the History Channel, and national CBS television show The Doctors. Embodied Labs has won national and international awards from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the AARP, OpenIDEO, and the US Department of Education.

In her talk, New worlds in medical visualization: transforming care and service by embodying a first-person patient perspective through immersive technology, Carrie will share how Embodied Labs delivers person-centred education to formal and informal caregivers of older adults and her unexpected journey into entrepreneurship as a first-time founder of a tech startup.

Date and Time:
March 12, 2021
2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. ET
(One-hour presentation with question-and-answer session)

Missed the presentation? View the video recording here:
https://vimeo.com/526893899/6674573c93

The road less travelled–BMC Speakers Series 2021 full program: https://bmc.med.utoronto.ca/news-events/2021/1/31/the-road-less-travelledbmc-speaker-series-2021


Carrie Shaw works at the intersection of health education and virtual reality storytelling. She is the CEO and founder of Embodied Labs, a venture-backed growth stage startup and immersive training and wellness platform for professional and family caregivers. Follow @carrieonshaw on Twitter and @embodiedlabs on Twitter and Instagram.

Delivering person-centered education through immersive technology. Image credit: Embodied Labs

Delivering person-centered education through immersive technology. Image credit: Embodied Labs

2021 BMC speaker series: Annie Tseng, Biomedical Communications Associate at Coactuate

Annie Tseng, MScBMC, Class of 2018.

Annie Tseng, MScBMC, Class of 2018.

Biomedical communications in the world of strategy consulting: finding comfort in ambiguity

‘Strategy’ and ‘consulting’ may sound ambiguous and scary and you may find yourself wondering, how could a biomedical communicator possibly fit in this world?

In big Pharma, hundreds of decisions are made everyday that impact multiple stakeholders across different countries. New treatments shift the way clinicians practice and how patients receive care. Strategic planning is critical in shaping the future of care.

As biomedical communicators, we are incredibly well-positioned because we thrive in that intersection — we have the curiosity for science, the analytical capabilities to tackle complex challenges, and deep understanding of tailoring communication to our audience so that we can effectively support strategic decisions. 

In this talk, Annie will share her experiences transitioning from BMC to strategy consulting, explore how the BMC skillset prepares us for the industry and how to advocate the value of biomedical communication in an ambiguous space.

Date and Time:
February 24, 2021
2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. ET
(One-hour presentation with question-and-answer session)

Missed the presentation? View the video recording here:
https://vimeo.com/520420430/9830cb94a7

The road less travelled–BMC Speakers Series 2021 full program: https://bmc.med.utoronto.ca/news-events/2021/1/31/the-road-less-travelledbmc-speaker-series-2021


Annie Tseng is a biomedical communications associate at Coactuate, where she works with health and pharmaceutical companies to solve complex, ambiguous challenges and support their strategic planning. Her work involves co-creation at the exec level through to the patient-level, and with cross-functional client teams, global medical experts and thought leaders, to design solutions that address unmet needs, can be implemented and have buy-in from everyone.

She discovered that she gets to leverage her critical sense-making, creative problem-solving and visual storytelling skills from BMC to take a human-centered approach to deliver outcomes and drive impact.

Grad students design COVID-19 variants information site to dispel misinformation

CTV News interviewed Katrina Hass, MScBMC 2T1, and Amir Arellano Saab, Cell & Systems Biology, about their COVID-19 variants information site on February 11, 2021.

sciforall.org

sciforall.org

2021 BMC speaker series: Savanna Jackson, Senior Service Designer at Bridgeable

Savanna Jackson, MScBMC, Class of 2017. Photo credit: Bridgeable

Savanna Jackson, MScBMC, Class of 2017. Photo credit: Bridgeable

Biomedical communications and human-centred design:
A perfect marriage to help solve the world’s big healthcare problems

Human-centred design is critical to creating products, services and communications that truly address the needs and abilities of those who use them. Nowhere is this more important than in the world of healthcare and medicine, which touches every human at one time or another.

Fortunately, the skills that prepare us to be effective biomedical communications specialists also equip us to solve human-centred design problems. We apply those skills in both medical illustration and in filling communication gaps in the healthcare world. 

In this talk, Savanna will give students a window into her path from the BMC program to the human-centred design field, explore what it looks like to practice this discipline in the context of biomedical communication, and show how incorporating human-centred design practices into your own work can help you better serve the needs of your audiences and clients.

Date and Time:
February 5, 2021
10:00 a.m. to 11:15 a.m. ET
(One-hour presentation followed by a 15-minute question-and-answer session)

Missed the presentation? View the video recording here: https://vimeo.com/509922130/87b9d934e3

The road less travelled–BMC Speakers Series 2021 full program: https://bmc.med.utoronto.ca/news-events/2021/1/31/the-road-less-travelledbmc-speaker-series-2021


Savanna Jackson, a senior service designer at award-winning design consultancy Bridgeable, translates complex problems, processes and experiences into clear and actionable opportunities to create better, more human solutions. 

Jackson says that a Master of Science in biomedical communications from the University of Toronto equipped her with the visual design and communication skills to zero-in on the “so what?” From vast amounts of complex data, she builds meaningful narratives and conveys them through communications that both delight audiences and illustrate the optimal way forward. 

Jackson also holds a Bachelor of Science in biology from McGill University and an Ontario College Certificate in design and applied arts from George Brown College. Follow @jacksonsassy on Instagram and Twitter.

Translating complex experiences into human solutions. Image Credits: Bridgeable

Translating complex experiences into human solutions. Image Credits: Bridgeable

BMC speaker series 2021: The road less travelled

Training for a career in the visual communication of science and medicine equips students with critical thinking and problem-solving skills that can be applied to any realm of communications. To recognize the 75th anniversary of BMC, students in the program have invited speakers who represent the rich diversity of practice in this rapidly expanding field.

BMC student named to top 3 in data visualization competition

8:58 a.m.

Maeve Doyle

Tableau Software named Abeeshan Selvabaskaran one of the top three winners in their inaugural 2020 data visualization competition for students, Iron Viz: Student Edition. Tableau made the announcement January 19.

A first year student in the Master of Science in Biomedical Communications at the University of Toronto, Selvabaskaran’s winning visualization Mapping Extinction with Climate Change depicts the relationship between human activity and endangered species.

He created the interactive visualization in Tableau, an interactive software toolkit used for data analytics and visualization.

Selvabaskaran’s piece allows the user to interact with the effect of anthropogenic impacts such as climate change and habitat destruction on different classes of animals. Users can also see how those changes have evolved over time.

Interactive data visualization Mapping Extinction with Climate Change created by Abeeshan Selvabaskaran was one the top three winners in Tableau’s inaugural student data vis competition Iron Viz: Student Edition.

Interactive data visualization Mapping Extinction with Climate Change created by Abeeshan Selvabaskaran was one the top three winners in Tableau’s inaugural student data vis competition Iron Viz: Student Edition.

The judges described Selvabaskaran’s entry as a beautifully designed visualization. "The dark background in conjunction with the four main colours representing the classes of species, combined with the excellent font selection makes for a really outstanding viewing experience," the judges said. "It had a good use of images to create an artistic and modern looking dashboard layout and background."

Submissions were judged on creativity, analysis, beauty and design, and overall best practices. Winners received Tableau merchandise and a $500 software certification training package.

Abeeshan Selvabaskaran, Year I graduate student in the BMC program

Abeeshan Selvabaskaran, Year I graduate student in the BMC program

Selvabaskaran says that his goal is to create visuals that educate and inspire. “I try to be as versatile as I can with the tools I use, whether that be through illustration software or interactive visualizations in Tableau.”

Currently, the graduate student is studying anatomy and learning to create anatomical illustrations. He says he looks forward to expanding his knowledge of 3D-modelling methods and technology. "My passion lies in 3D-animation and XR (extended reality) technologies and I can't wait to be part of the future in interactive healthcare education."