The 71st Association of Medical Illustrators (AMI) Annual Conference was held this past July in Atlanta, Georgia, and the TVASurg team was honoured to speak at one of the TED-talk style sessions. To address an audience of veteran medical illustrators, we decided to focus less on the techniques and approaches we use in producing our surgical atlas, but rather highlight the impact and influence that biomedical communicators bring to surgical education.

We invited one of our chief editors, Dr. Ian McGilvray, to speak about his experience in working with the biomedical communicators at TVASurg, and how it has affected his practice as a surgeon and educator. The presentation was recorded and is available above and on our Youtube channel.

For TVASurg team members, the AMI conference is an exceptional opportunity to build networks, as well as catch up with past classmates and colleagues on their journeys in life.

Shown above is rare footage of team leader Albert Fung (left) catching up with Naveen Devasagayam (middle), who worked with the team on an educational animation for potential liver donors. Naveen is currently working at INVIVO Communications Inc, applying his award-winning animation skills in digital healthcare.

Also pictured is Man-San Ma (right), who is a former colleague of our parent group (the Perioperative Interactive Education team), and has collaborated with us in creating an educational animation for potential kidney donors. Man-San is currently contributing her award-winning talents at AXS Studio.

As always, the conference was packed with quality speakers, whose sessions leave us with invaluable knowledge to take back home. From Nobles Green's overview of Youtube marketing, to Michael Hickman's workshop on creating high detail, ambient occlusion based procedural shading in 3D (praise the triangles!), as well as Issac Evans' presentation on the 24/7 on call workflow at the Graphics Services Branch at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. We are humbled by the talent, passion and professionalism displayed by biomedical communicators in the field, and are grateful for them to impart their wisdom and experience with us.

We also enjoyed taking part in the Roundtable discussions held between student and professional members. It was refreshing to learn about where and how AMI members apply their talents in the medical illustration field, and comforting to know that we face similar obstacles and challenges in our professional journey.

One of challenges discussed was copyright and intellectual property issues, which was well explored in the Member's Forum. A big thanks to all the AMI copyright forerunners in updating us - the interactive cell phone polling was especially eye-opening. Champions of creator’s rights will be pleased to know we have publicly registered all of our online work with the Canadian Intellectual Property Office. Fancy certificates are a bonus.

copyrightcertsimg

We'd like to congratulate the AMI planning committee on a wonderful and successful conference, and we definitely look forward to seeing everyone next year in Austin, Texas.

PS. Yes, we will have mentee trading cards printed by then…:)

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