In 2016, the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM) began collecting graphic medicine, and later described this emerging area in its December 2017 blog, “Circulating Now” as "the use of comics or graphic narratives in health care discourse …Graphic medicine is read by the general public, but is also used in medical education and patient care to improve health professionals’ understanding of the patient experience and other factors to consider when developing treatment strategies.”

The Galter Health Sciences Library & Learning Center has begun adding graphic medicine books to its print collections. Here is a sampling of recently acquired titles housed in the first floor book stacks. Check the online catalog to verify their availability:

• Becoming Unbecoming / Una [Stacks: WS 462 U54b 2016]   
• Facts of Life / Paula Knight [Stacks: WP 17 K71f 2017]  
• The Graphic Medicine Manifesto / MK Czerwiec [Stacks: WZ 336 C998g 2015]   
• My Degeneration: A Journey Through Parkinson's / Dunlop Shohl [Stacks: WL 359 D922m 2015]   
• Last Things: A Graphic Memoir of Loss and Love / Marissa Moss [Stacks: WB 310 M913L 2017]   
• Lighter Than My Shadow / Katie Green [Stacks: WM 175 G796L 2017]   
• Marbles: Mania, Depression, and Me / Ellen Fortney [Stacks: WM 171.7 F727m 2012]   
• Neurocomic / Matteo Farinella, Hana Roš [Stacks: WZ 336 F225n 2013]   
• Raised on Ritalin: A Personal Story of ADHD, Medication, and Modern Psychiatry / Tyler Page [Stacks: WS 350.8 A8 P133r 2016]   
• Rosalie Lightning / Tom Hart [Stacks: BF 575.G7 H326r 2016]   
• Spot 12: Five Months in the Neonatal ICU / Jenny Jaeckel [Stacks: WS 421 J22s 2016]   
• Taking Turns: Stories from HIV/AIDS Care Unit 371 / MK Czerwiec [Stacks: WY 17 C998t 2017]   
• Things to do in a Retirement Home Trailer Park When You're 29 and Unemployed / Aneurin Wright [Stacks: WY 200 W947t 2015]   
• The Walking Med : Zombies and the Medical Image / edited by Lorenzo Servitje and Sherryl Vin [Stacks: WZ 336 W186 2016]   

The world of graphic medicine goes beyond publication alone. Graphic Medicine, an organization devoted to this field, also sponsors annual conferences and podcasts. In early 2018, the NLM featured a webinar entitled “A Conversation about Graphic Medicine” (view the recording), and announced a new traveling exhibit that has already enjoyed enthusiastic advance reservations by various institutions around the country. Graphic medicine has caught the attention of the Feinberg community as well, with the offering of lectures and elective courses. M.K. Czerwiec, RN, MA, artist in residence at the Center for Bioethics and Medical Humanities and author of selections in the Galter Library's collections, delivered the keynote speech on the field of graphic medicine at Feinberg’s inaugural Medical Humanities and Bioethics Conference in May 2017.

Conversations and dialogs on graphic medicine topics continue in many venues. Examples include a blog posting by the Exhibition Registrar in the History of Medicine Division of the NLM: Graphic Medicine: A Personal Story, a curated re-cap of postings called "This Week in Graphic Medicine," and a presentation on "Comics in the Medical School Classroom" at the 2018 annual conference of the Medical Library Association by one of the most active medical librarians in the field, Matthew Noe. Stay up to date by following the Twitter handle Graphic Medicine (@GraphicMedicine) and in the coming weeks, look for a spotlight display in the library’s Eckenhoff Reference Room featuring books from Galter’s graphic medicine collection.