Visual narratives in medicine – bridging the gap in graphic medicine with an illustrated narrative of osteoarthritis

Objective Visual narratives have been used in medicine to share information in the form of stories with the potential to improve understanding of conditions and change behaviours. One genre of visual narratives is “graphic medicine”, which integrates comics into medical education and the delivery of healthcare. Graphic medicine can maximise the impact of research findings by presenting them in a more accessible format, which may be particularly useful in certain populations, such as those with low levels of health literacy. Those with lower health literacy levels and osteoarthritis (OA) are less likely to manage their condition with guideline recommended management strategies, experience a higher burden of disease, and have lower access to care. Our objectives were to review the current visual narratives in the field of and create a graphic medicine visual narrative based on existing research. Design This paper summarises the current visual narratives in OA and presents a graphic medicine visual narrative to illustrate the experience of living with OA. Considerations for the dissemination of visual narratives to target audiences are also discussed. Results The most common visual narratives in are infographics, videos, and graphic medicine. A graphic medicine visual narrative, based on previous qualitative work and informed by a framework, was created to illustrate two distinct narratives – impairment and participatory. Conclusion Visual narratives remain an emerging field in OA but may serve as a useful resource for patients or clinicians to discuss various aspects of OA management. Future research should evaluate and validate the use of visual narratives in OA.