title: Communication in surgical illustration.
abstract: The surgeon is a unique user of medical illustration. With both hands busy, necessarily occupying the space with the best view of what's going on, muffled by a mask and hemmed in by operating theatre personnel, the surgeon is not well-situated for teaching. On the other hand, teaching is precisely what medical illustrators do, through their drawings and diagrams: the profession has no other raison d'être. Communication is essential, from surgeon to artist and from artist to student. Two unexpected obstacles are here discussed (only partly tongue-in-cheek).
authors.affiliation: Sunnybrook Health Science Centre, North York, Ontario, Canada. Patsy.Cunningham@Sunnybrook.on.ca
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Cunningham
mesh_terms: D001154:Art; D003142:Communication; D013502:General Surgery / Q000193:education*; D006801:Humans; D008488:Medical Illustration