College of Allied Health Sciences students awarded for medical illustrations

Four students in the Department of Medical Illustration at the College of Allied Health Sciences received awards at the 2022 University of Georgia and Augusta University Science and Medical Illustration Student Exhibition in March.

Allen Hagan received the Stenstrom Award of Excellence for his illustration “The Lumbosacral Plexus and Muscular Innervation.” The Stenstrom Award is named after former program director and professor, William J. Stenstrom, EdD. He was a world-renowned ophthalmic illustrator and educator who was very active in the field of biomedical communications.

The purpose of Hagan’s didactic neuroanatomical poster was to showcase the pathways of the lumbosacral plexus isolated and in the context of the muscles and organs they innervate.

Peter Naktin received an award of Excellence for “The Left Axillary Artery and its Branches.”  The didactic illustration aims to effectively depict, for an audience of medical students, the location of the left axillary artery, the course and distribution of its branches, and its relationship to peripheral anatomical structures in the axillary region.

Corynne Gamboa received an Award of Merit for “Clival Chordoma,” an illustration that depicts the location of clival chordomas — a type of cancerous skull tumor — for an audience of medical students. It also demonstrates the neural and arterial structures impacted by the tumor growth.

Clara Oh received an Award of Merit for “Treating Hypertension with Quinapril.” Her illustrated marketing poster depicted, for an audience of physicians and patients, the biochemical and physiological process of Quinapril, a medication that lowers blood pressure, placed within an appropriate environmental context.

This was the 30th anniversary of the cooperative exhibit displaying the best in student scientific and medical illustration in Georgia. The awards were presented at a reception in the Lamar Dodd School of Art on the University of Georgia campus.

Additionally, the Department of Medical Illustration announced that Oh received the prestigious Joyce McGill Scholarship, an honor from the Vesalius Trust. The award is for her proposed master’s project, “An Interactive Module to Enhance Understanding of Tests That Diagnose for Myocarditis.”

Elayna Miller was selected as one of five Vesalian Scholars and will receive a research grant for her master’s project, “Cholecystectomy Simulation Model.” This soft tissue surgical simulator is designed for training surgical residents at the Medical College of Georgia and beyond.

Founded in 1988, the Vesalius Trust for Visual Communication in the Health Sciences fosters the study, research and practice in visual communication of health information at all levels.