A multidisciplinary approach: improving physician visual communication via clinical sketches

Effective communication in healthcare can benefit from clear and engaging visual aids. Grounded in Cognitive Load Theory, Dual Coding Theory, and Visual Literacy Theory, our study investigates the impact of an instructional video designed to enhance physicians' visual communication skills through improved clinical sketches. By collaboration of medical and fine arts disciplines, a rubric was developed for evaluating clinical sketches based on artistic principles of layout, visual clarity, style, sequence and directionality, hierarchy and colour. An instructional video was created highlighting these principles along with clinical examples (Publicly available at: https://mymedia.bu.edu/media/t/1_wgpgpl84). Four physicians created clinical sketches before and after viewing the video. The study includes pre- and post-surveys and evaluations of the sketches by artists. Survey results demonstrated a statistically significant increase in aesthetic quality across multiple categories- layout, visual clarity, style, sequence and directionality - after physicians viewed the instructional video. Physicians reported increased motivation to incorporate clinical illustrations into their practice however outlined time constraints as a barrier. Our findings highlight the efficacy of the instructional video in enhancing physicians' ability to create informative clinical sketches. Future research should focus on integrating visual communication tools into clinics and medical education curricula to pursue patient-centred care.