The Graphic Medicine Community is Global. Conferences are a significant way to bring colleagues together to share art, writing, research, new ideas, and projects. It also provides a venue for networking, enhancing, and developing new collaborations, but most importantly to gather community members who all share an interest in Graphic Medicine based on the primary philosophy that Graphic Medicine is inclusive and gives voice to those who are often not heard.

The 15th International Graphic Medicine Conference took place at the Technological University of the Shannon in Athlone, Ireland from July 16th- 18th 2024. The three-day conference kicked off with specialist workshops, based in TUS (Athlone) and in the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.

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Jane Burns  Conference Ambassador

The pre-conference workshop entitled Graphic Medicine for Health Care Professionals led by Dr. Williams was awarded Irish College of General Practioners CPD credits and The Developing a Graphic Medicine Collection workshop led by Matthew Noe was awarded CPD Credits by the Library Association of Ireland.

The infographic below provides a summary of attendees, speakers and events:

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Range of Speakers

Speakers represented a range of countries and organisations, and many were independent presenters. This was also reflected in the makeup of the conference attendees. It was amazing to have creators of Graphic Medicine material in person to meet with the readers of their work, for librarians and researchers to meet the creators of the works they review, organise and promote for a broad range of users and applications. The feelings of excitement and engagement really connected to the theme of the conference which was Draíocht: Sparking Creativity. Draíocht is the Irish word for Magic!

The Conference Eco-System

There is so much potential that emerges from a conference at this scale. Prior to the Conference there were intensive traditional media and online social media driven by the local conference committee and the Graphic Medicine International Collective. During the conference there was coverage by Irish news outlets, especially a prime-time national news report on RTE news on Day 1 of the conference. The Irish Times (National Newspaper of Ireland) ran a special feature in advance of the conference highlighting topics and exhibitions, see here https://www.irishtimes.com/health/your-family/2024/06/25/where-comic-books-meet-healthcare-a-graphic-approach-to-medicine/

Throughout the Conference a series of podcasts of speakers were undertaken and these available on the Graphic Medicine Website. (https://www.graphicmedicine.org/2024-athlone-ireland-conference/) A number of speakers were invited to make submissions to blogs and forums This level of broad engagement helped to raised awareness about Graphic Medicine which is an emerging discipline and a relatively new concept to Irish audiences. An invitation by the Graphic Medicine Review journal to publish the conference proceedings was warmly welcomed. This issue reflects articles based on conference proceedings by the speakers who have developed them further for the peer review process of the GMR. This special edition adds a further element to the portfolio of outputs from the Conference; it provides another way for those interested in Graphic Medicine to learn more about the field and for those involved in the field to have another avenue to disseminate and engage with their work.

Many thanks to the Graphic Medicine Review Editorial team for making this endeavour a reality.