Figure 1. “What Did You Say?” sample animation.

Figure 2. “What Did You Say?” film poster. Reproduced with permission from the Johns Hopkins Cochlear Center for Hearing and Public Health.

Figure 3. “What Did You Say?” film trailer. Reproduced with permission from the Johns Hopkins Cochlear Center for Hearing and Public Health.

In undergrad, I began taking animation courses, partially because I wanted to dip my toes into the world of film at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts, but mostly because I desired a creative outlet to complement my premedical science courses. I had grown up dabbling in fine arts, refining my lines, shapes, colors, and compositions. But stepping into the world of animation, where life breathes the inanimate to form a story, was exhilarating. I learned and realized that even a simple motion like a bouncing ball has a beginning, middle, and end, creating the basic arc of a story with story beats, or the most salient moments. This understanding of what a story is, and how it is relevant to not only animated films but also in the intimate patient-physician relationship, etched the trail of medicine for me. Every patient has a story to tell, and each story is embedded with story beats for the physician to recognize. We take these story beats to recreate and reconstruct a medical narrative that paints differential diagnoses for us to act upon.

As a medical student, I have been determined to continue my animation endeavors and harmonize the arts with medicine, specifically through creative mediums that tell a story. I have sought to integrate the two into my future career and have been able to find the overlap through the world of animated medical documentaries and graphic medicine.

Building on an animated documentary production course I took with Sheila Sofian and the completion of my animation minor capstone film in undergrad, I wanted to further examine the capabilities of animated documentaries in the context of medicine. Historically, animated content in the medical field has primarily revolved around surgical demonstrations and informational motion graphics pertinent to public health. However, the burgeoning popularity of animation as a documentary form, with recent major historical nominations for the Danish animated documentary Flee for several Academy Awards,¹ coinciding with the growing momentum of medical humanities has engendered an expanding production of animated documentary films, expanding the horizons of both storytelling for entertainment and medical narratives. What I love about medical animated documentaries is the unique blend of sheer visual creativity inherent in the animation medium and real-world human stories archiving lived experiences. In medicine, this approach is particularly advantageous as it allows filmmakers the capacity to trim out unnecessary medical complexities, visually illustrate scenes beyond the scope of contemporary physical filming, and even protect patient identity to a certain degree through visual abstraction of patient faces.

My latest animated documentary, titled “What Did You Say?,” was created as my first-year medical school scholarly project (back when I was also interested in otolaryngology).² The 7-minute short film follows 2 patients’ hearing health journeys with commentary by Dr Frank Lin, director of the Johns Hopkins Cochlear Center for Hearing and Public Health (Figures 1-3). This documentary has garnered local Hopkins buzz in the Winter 2022 Johns Hopkins Magazine,³ as well as national and international recognition through screenings at film festivals. Directing and animating “What Did You Say?” has enabled me the opportunity to connect with patients on a much deeper level through extensive patient interviews not limited by the hustle of clinic, share public health knowledge through the perspective and literal words of patients, and connect with the community at large both in person through film festivals and virtually through social media. My future aspirations are to direct and produce more animated documentaries in the field of urology.

While most people appreciate the art of animation, few truly know how much work goes behind the scenes in animating a film. Standard, hand-drawn animation typically runs on 12 frames per second, meaning 12 individual pictures are drawn and colored for a mere 1 second of animation. Extrapolate these numbers, and anyone can deduce how much time and dedication are needed to make an animated film. As a medical student juggling clinical rotations, research, and hobbies, it became more and more difficult to squeeze out time to produce another film. Instead, graphic medicine provided an alternative outlet for my creativity. Graphic medicine is a term coined by Dr Ian Williams that is defined by the convergence of comics and health care,⁴ and a comic is essentially a film storyboard, the key story beats of a narrative drawn in sequential panels that flow through time. Drawing upon similar techniques of storytelling, I used graphic medicine as a means of artistic journaling to share my self-reflections and personal narrative. The last piece I finished is titled “A Series of Realizations as a First-Year Medical Student,” recently published as a graphic medicine entry in Annals of Internal Medicine.⁵ It consists of 8 panels that highlight the emotional roller coaster experienced by first-year medical students and several realizations I made about myself and my path in medical training (Figure 4). Now I am working on another graphic medicine piece, one where I finish a panel after every core rotation documenting my reflections of each clerkship.

Art is not always appreciated as critical medical scholarly work compared to basic science or clinical research, yet it is just as valuable as it allows one to form deeper connections with patients. Forming this deeper connection is especially important for a field like urology, where sensitive topics are being navigated and addressed daily. When I look back at how I have fused my passions for medicine and art so far, I can’t help but smile a bit and feel excited for what future projects hold. My long-term goal is to combine my proficiency in animated documentary filmmaking with urologic clinical experience to push the boundaries of both animation filmmaking and urology and uncover possibilities at their junction.

Acknowledgments: I thank Ariel Vilidnitsky for editing my writing. I also thank Dr Frank Lin, Molly Sheehan, the 2 patients, and the rest of the film team for all their support and willingness to produce the film “What Did You Say?” with me. A special thanks to Sheila Sofian for her continual support and guidance in my animation and filmmaking endeavors even after graduation. Additionally, I would like to extend my gratitude to Ms Jennifer Regala and Dr Stacy Tanaka for the invitation for me to contribute an article sharing my animation and creative pursuits in the medical field.