Love Your Heart: Medical Illustration student designs traveling exhibit

Working at her local library after earning her undergraduate degree, Laura Castro would often see a traveling exhibit pass through the branch with patrons learning something interesting from it. Now, the second-year student at Augusta University’s Medical Illustration program has created a traveling exhibit of her own, which is about to be unboxed and displayed at various locations around Georgia.

Five posters and a portable blood pressure monitor comprise the “Love Your Heart” exhibit designed to improve the cardiovascular health literacy of those who interact with it. Castro and her co-creators want people, particularly women, to learn more about their blood pressure and what the numbers really mean for their overall health. 

The exhibit is a partnership between AU’s ROAR initiative and the AU Medical Illustration program. ROAR, which stands for Rural, Obese, At-Risk, is a community outreach initiative of the NIH-supported Specialized Center of Excellence at Augusta University, led by Interim Provost and Dean of The Graduate School Jennifer Sullivan, PhD. 

The Medical Illustration program at AU is one of only four medical illustration programs in the country that teaches students like Castro how to create medical illustrations, animations and 3D models that aid the work of scientists and make science easier for the general public to understand.

“I love that we have this partnership with research on campus. The great thing about having a medical illustration program at an academic medical center is we’re able to pair students with real-world opportunities,” said Amanda Behr, PhD, department chair and professor in the Medical Illustration program within the College of Allied Health Sciences. “There’s nothing like the creativity of scientific and creative minds working together to create. Scientists have ideas, we have ideas, and, through collaboration, we make them a reality.”

Love your heart

The posters and blood pressure testing station will be set up in the Dr. Paulette P. Harris Literacy Center at the Hub for Community Innovation Augusta for two weeks in February, which is American Heart Month. Visitors can learn how to measure their own blood pressure and, perhaps even more importantly, interpret those numbers.

Castro built a Polly Pocket-style model as a passion project while working on the exhibit. She used a 3D printer to create a miniature version of the life-sized version visitors will see and be able to use. The actual exhibit consists of five informative posters about a range of hypertension topics, including healthy living guidelines from the American Heart Association, how high blood pressure affects different body systems and a simple explanation of what systolic and diastolic numbers mean on a blood pressure reading. 

“I am grateful for the Medical Illustration program for all the knowledge and resources made available for me to make the idea a reality,” said Castro, who will be creating two more posters for the exhibit, based on feedback received from visitors. “I appreciate the guidance I have received from my AMI mentor, Jason Sharpe. This exhibit is definitely something I would not be able to do on my own, and I appreciate the feedback and support from the ROAR members, as well.

“I really appreciate anyone who would like to take the time to view the exhibit and provide feedback. I’m also excited to see what the audience will select as the next two poster topics and to begin working on those,” Castro continued.

There will also be an instruction sheet on how to use the portable blood pressure machine and suggestions for affordable ones to buy.

“I will say the Omron machine is quite affordable for home use,” Castro said. “Everyone is not going to buy one, but the idea of monitoring your blood pressure over time, not just when you visit a doctor once or twice a year, is something to consider.”

The group is still working on the various locations to ship the exhibit to, focusing on libraries and community centers. It’s compact and an easy setup for one person.

“One of the main unique features of our ROAR grant, which involves outreach and education for different groups of people, is that our partners are located throughout the Southeast,” said Sullivan, who’s particularly passionate about women’s health and research. “We have the capacity, using our networks, to reach people in this region, and, when talking about underserved populations, rural populations and the risk of hypertension in women, which is the focus of our project, the Southeast is a prime location for our work. Those are the communities that are most significantly at risk. Those are a lot of the women who don’t necessarily have their blood pressure checked regularly for a variety of reasons, and we hope to reach them through our efforts.”

Perfect timing

It’s no coincidence the exhibit debuts at the Hub on Valentine’s Day. It will run through Feb. 28 and conclude with a showcase featuring a question-and-answer session with the developers. 

Castro came up with the idea and presented it to her adviser, Behr, who connected the dots to Sullivan for the funding arm of the project. 

“The call for this grant came out. We assembled a group of equally minded, passionate individuals who had the desire to tackle this important topic. Hypertension and blood pressure control are something our faculty here are very well known for,” Sullivan said. “So, we are harnessing our established strengths in a scientific area, in a spot in the country I think we have a real potential to be impactful. It’s a really unique opportunity for Augusta to be highlighted for an area we are very strong in.”

Behr worked with Castro to create the materials and look for ways to expand their reach.

“My role in the grant and working with Laura is patient education, so creating materials to help individuals better understand their health and specifically blood pressure,” Behr said. “That’s what we’re targeting. That’s one of the barriers, having the right materials or having a deeper understanding of what the numbers mean. We do that through illustration, through crafting words that are appropriate for all audiences. Beautiful, educational visuals that are translated into an exhibit is a new way to reach a broader audience, which is exciting.”

For the scientific content of the exhibit, Castro worked closely with Daria Ilatovskaya, PhD, associate professor and graduate program director. Ilatovskaya runs the Community Engagement Core of the ROAR grant and has been working to set up partnerships with sororities and fraternities, the American Heart Association and other local organizations. The posters are also being printed in Spanish to ensure wider accessibility to the vital information, particularly for women.

Beginning at the Hub

The hope is that local women passing through the Hub in the next few weeks will take some time for a little self-care. 

“I sincerely hope the exhibit makes a positive impact at the HUB and on all the communities it visits. I hope my illustrations are striking enough to catch the eye of someone from across the room and engage them to learn more about cardiovascular health,” Castro said. 

“We really want to engage these women and make sure they are actually interested in learning a little more about what their cardiovascular health is. And having that blood pressure machine right there at the exhibition, I think, is the best thing we could do,” Ilatovskaya said. “While they’re sitting at the Hub, maybe waiting for their kids or grandkids, they can actually measure their blood pressure. They will get a little printout with the meaning of those blood pressure numbers. And they can take it home, write things down and potentially check in with their doctor or another health professional they have access to if their blood pressure is higher than it needs to be.”

Sullivan said she hopes those printouts might stimulate awareness and change. The next round of funding could help with that. 

“We can’t make them follow up, but we can give them all of the resources that we can come up with to create a sense of urgency around it,” she said.

Once the traveling exhibit has made its stops around the state, Sullivan would like to see pop-ups of “Love Your Heart” at campus locations like the JSAC and campus libraries. It could be a lifesaving tool for college students with undiagnosed hypertension.

The “Love Your Heart” traveling exhibit is free and open to the public for a limited time in each of the cities it visits, beginning at AU’s Harris Literacy Center, from Feb. 14-28.