MCG professor, medical illustration student creating children’s book

There’s an episode of the popular PBS television show “Daniel Tiger” where Daniel goes to see the doctor for a checkup. Daniel begins to get nervous until his mom, sensing Daniel’s anxiety, begins to draw pictures illustrating all that will happen from waiting in the waiting room through each of the different tests.

When Daniel finally visits Dr. Anna’s office, he is comfortable to the point that he later passes the book his mom made off to his friend O the Owl, who is also nervous about his checkup visit at the end of the episode.

What if there was a real-life book that wasn’t regulated to the Land of Make-Believe? Lauren Welsh, MD, and Noah Smith are attempting to do just that.

A passion for helping children

Welsh, an assistant professor in the Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine in Augusta University’s Medical College of Georgia, is a pediatric anesthesiologist at the Wellstar Children’s Hospital of Georgia with over 10 years of experience caring for children undergoing surgeries. She has also enjoyed serving as the medical director of the Pediatric Preoperative Clinic for six years, helping to focus her knowledge, experience and interest in the wellness and safe preparation of children for their surgeries and procedures.

One of her favorite parts of her job has been helping to decrease the anxiety and concerns that her patients and their parents feel prior to their anesthetic.

Two female doctors show a young patient a few of the tools in an exam room. — Lauren Welsh, MD, right, and Elizabeth Gay, DNP, a certified registered nurse anesthetist, show Welsh’s daughter, Nora, how a mask fits during procedures. [Milledge Austin/Augusta University]

“Decreasing preoperative anxiety is not just less traumatic for the child, it has positive clinical implications in their care,” Welsh said. “It decreases time in recovery and narcotic use postoperatively and more.”

Now, as a mom of two young children, she finds herself reading lots of children’s books. Adding that personal experience with her clinical experience, she finally felt ready to create the preoperative children’s book for her patients that she had been thinking about doing for years.

Last fall, Michael Jensen, associate professor in the College of Allied Health Sciences and program director and surgery coordinator for AU’s Medical Illustration program, put out a call for proposals for projects the second-year medical illustration students could do for their capstone project in the final semester of the program. Welsh knew this was the perfect opportunity.

“I believe a preoperative children’s picture book will have a huge positive impact on the experience and the care of the children who read it,” Welsh said in her proposal.

And as soon as he saw her proposal, Smith immediately knew he wanted to take the project on.

Two female doctors speak with a young patient as the patient looks at a chart prior to having a procedure. — Lauren Welsh’s daughter looks at a chart of flavors for different medications used during procedures. [Milledge Austin/Augusta University]

Back to his roots

Like many of his peers, Smith grew up drawing, being creative and being fascinated with science. In middle school, he created a card game based on the periodic table. When he showed it to his biology teacher at the time, she told him about the field of medical illustration, a career that did exactly what he was already doing – coupling art with a love of science.

“My biology teacher told me I’d love medical illustration, and I immediately knew I wanted to go into it,” said Smith, a second-year graduate student in AU’s Medical Illustration program. “While attending the Scientific Illustration undergrad program at UGA, I was able to see the impact that scientific communication has on education. Here at the AU Medical Illustration graduate program, I’ve gotten to work on a lot of patient education projects, and I really enjoy the impact medical illustration can have on a patient’s life.”

A male college student leans over a drawing pad and sketches at a computer desk. There are two computer screens in front of and to the side of him, and there is a finalized drawing of a scene from a children's book on one of the screens. — Noah Smith is a second-year graduate student in the AU Medical Illustration program at AU. [Michael Holahan/Augusta University]

Each year, the cohort for the Medical Illustration program is comprised of nine students, and this year there were more than 30 master’s project proposals. When Welsh submitted her idea for the pre-op children’s book, she was nervous that none of the students would be interested in the idea, but she met one of Smith’s classmates in the operating room, and they knew otherwise.

“I said, ‘Did you see the proposals, especially the one about the kids’ book?’ and the student in the OR smiled and said, ‘We all know Noah’s going to choose that one,’” Welsh recalled. “When I met him, I could tell we were both very much aligned with our goals, and it’s been awesome to work with him to make this finally come to life and have the chance to integrate it into the care of our patients here at CHOG.”

A finished page of an illustrated children's book rests on top of previous sketches of the same book with notes written in the margins. — The story Lauren Welsh, MD, and Noah Smith are working on follows Ella, a young girl who loves to skateboard and be outside, but a skateboarding accident leads to a broken arm that must be set via surgery. [Michael Holahan/Augusta University]

Getting started

Once he saw the proposal list and made his selection, Smith wasted no time getting started. He began developing character designs, storyboards and text and is now in the midst of finalizing his illustrations.

The story follows Ella, a young girl who loves to skateboard and be outside, but a skateboarding accident leads to a broken arm that must be set via surgery.

“I’ve had a lot of fun with this project. I drew a lot of cartoons in high school, so it’s been really fun after four years of rigorous illustration training to revisit my roots,” Smith said.

A male college student sketches a picture of a girl holding a skateboard. The sketch is part of a children's book. — Noah Smith is now in the midst of finalizing his illustrations for the upcoming book. [Michael Holahan/Augusta University]

While he’s having fun, he’s also getting a closer look at all the layers that go into project production. The hope is that the book will be made available to children who come through the Children’s Hospital of Georgia and can explain to them what is going to happen and what they might see while undergoing surgery.

“It’s been interesting communicating with everyone who has a hand in patient care,” Smith said. “We’re hoping this can be distributed across the Wellstar Health System. It’s crucial to coordinate between different departments and hospital staff to ensure everyone is confident in what’s being presented to the patients. Medical illustrators are skilled communicators, able to incorporate lots of feedback to create a strong product that achieves its goals. In this case, our goal is to improve outcomes for as many children as possible.”

Following in the footsteps of his mentor

As Smith has been working on the book, he couldn’t have asked for a better faculty adviser in the form of Jensen. Jensen worked on several “Curious George” books, so he’s familiar with the design process involving children’s books.

“It’s been great to work with him. Because of his background, he knows so well how to illustrate children’s books,” Smith said.

“Illustrating children’s books well is deceptively difficult — designing appealing characters and engaging page layouts, simplifying visual information while preserving essential details, matching the author’s tone and personality, and all wrapped in a unique artistic style, relies on instinct as much as it does raw talent,” Jensen said. “Many of these qualities can’t be taught; they just come with the individual. The joy of working with Noah on this project is seeing these instincts guide each page.”

A male college student stands behind a desk that has several sheets of sketches laid out over its top. — In middle school, Noah Smith created a card game based on the periodic table, and his biology teacher at the time introduced him to the field of medical illustration. [Michael Holahan/Augusta University]

The two share another connection as Smith recently received the Alan Cole Scholarship Award, awarded by Vesalius Trust, 20 years after Jensen won the same award. Smith and Welsh’s project beat out students from programs at Johns Hopkins, Rochester Institute of Technology, the University of Toronto and the University of Illinois at Chicago. The last to do it was Clara Oh in 2020.

“I admit there is a sense of pride that two medical illustrators to come through the AU program, with a great love of the children’s book illustration genre, have been recognized with the Alan Cole Award,” Jensen said.

Three college students wearing medical lab coats stand in a library. Two of the students are men and one is a woman. — Landon Dyer, Noah Smith and Jillian Derjue. [Noah Smith]

This year, AU had three medical illustration students recognized with the Vesalius Trust Awards with Smith winning the top spot. The other students recognized were Landon Dyer and Jillian Derjue with research grant awards. Mia Nickell was recognized in 2024, and in 2023, AU was represented by four winners, with Peter Naktin awarded the second-highest award, the Joyce McGill Scholarship.

“One of the greatest joys as an educator is witnessing our students succeed — not just in earning awards but finding their passion and discovering the potential within the field,” said Amanda Behr, PhD, department chair. “Seeing students like Noah thrive is a powerful reminder of why we do this work, and it’s incredibly rewarding to know we’ve played a part in their journey.”

Moving forward

As the project begins to move toward the next stages in the coming months, Welsh and Smith are excited about what is to come.

Through her research and work with children, Welsh has recognized the importance of reframing situations to make them less scary for children. In one scene in particular, Ella is starting to drift off under the anesthesia and is beginning to dream she is skateboarding through space.

“We have these overarching themes of adventure, bravery and ‘being a superstar’ that are familiar and exciting to kids. These themes can then easily introduce children to an otherwise scary and unfamiliar process and place,” Welsh said.

A woman stands in a large room with several cubicles spread around. There is a model of a human skeleton and several computers, as well. — Lauren Welsh, MD, believes a preoperative children’s picture book will have a huge positive impact on the experience and the care of the children who read it. [Michael Holahan/Augusta University

The primary goal is for children to learn more about what will happen on the day of their procedure, and Welsh has asked Gaby Sanchez, MD, a graduate of MCG’s Anesthesiology Residency program and the current Pediatric Anesthesia Fellow, to help translate the book into Spanish to expand its reach even further. Sanchez will also be helping to monitor the impact of the book with her Quality Improvement project.

“I could not have met a better and more skilled person to help bring this character to life and go through this journey,” Welsh said. “I think we’re at a phase where we are starting to see it really come together, and it’s very exciting for this story and information to reach our patients. We also hope they’ll want to read it over and over again, even after they visit us for their procedure.”