Influence of Illustrators Intentions and Visual Description Techniques of Medical Illustrations on Generating Interest and Boosting Comprehension of Medical Information

In this study, an exploratory online survey was conducted to clarify points that have not been clarified so far in the medical illustration research field. If several illustrators make an illustration of the same information, does a match of intentions and techniques affect the impression or comprehension of the information? The aim is to further the utilization of medical illustration in actual practice (n=1104). First, we selected Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease (ADPKD) as the medical condition about which information had to be disseminated. Then, we asked 32 art professionals to make six illustrations with three detail types (high, middle, and low) and two purposes ("getting interested" and "boosting comprehension"). Thereafter, we selected six different types of art professionals illustrations for the questionnaire to ask the participants about the intentions of the illustrations and comprehension of the content. We found that if the illustrators intentions and visual description techniques match with the recipients, the match of intentions could help generate interest in the content, and the match of visual description techniques could enhance the comprehension of the information.