Mabeob, Nyankomade, Salamangka: Illustrating the Intersection of Medicine, Diversity, and Ethics in Three Original Comics set in Korea, Ghana, and the Philippines

This manuscript discusses medical students’ experience of co-authoring three medical ethics-based comics inspired by their respective Korean, Ghanaian, and Filipino backgrounds. Shaping Beauty, Best Medicine, and Conflicting Covenants are a part of the increasingly popular field of Graphic Medicine, defined as the “intersection between the medium of comics and the discourse of healthcare” (Williams, 2021). Targeting the international Graphic Medicine audience and medical learners, we explore distinct medical ethical dilemmas in sample panels from each comic. Subsequently, we share insights about how these interprofessional, international collaborations have impacted us as students who are training to become competent and compassionate physicians. This developmental process, known as Professional Identity Formation (PIF), is defined as a gradual transformation while integrating values, relationships, roles, and responsibilities (Sarraf-Yazdi et al., 2024). This process is partly conscious, as when students seek experiences that will help them embody the clinical skills and ethical sensitivity of their role models; at other times, PIF is more a product of the “hidden curriculum,” where students intuitively learn the mores of medical culture largely through exposure to it (Green & Myers, 2010; Green et al., 2017). We discovered during this two-year-long project that Graphic Medicine serves as a novel educational modality that bridges the gap between our lived experiences and those of individuals from different cultures.