Chidiebere Ibe is breaking new ground for black medical illustration

Disparities in health outcomes are not a new phenomenon. It was most visible during the first wave of the pandemic last year, but it was also evident in recent coverage of the Black maternity health controversy earlier this year.

During a Channel 4 documentary aired in March, Dr. Christine Ekechi discussed how the origins of medicine had contributed to the inequalities found in present-day healthcare outcomes.

When medicine first started it evolved from the norm - which essentially was the white male. Everyone else has been included in that system but not necessarily on an equal footing."

Dr Christine Ekechi

In the UK this is reinforced by medical literature which frames white bodies as the standard  for observation and is aggravated by the absence of other races from medical illustrations; however, this is not resigned to the UK alone.

A 2018 study from University of Washington assistant sociology professor Patricia Louie, and her co-author Rima Wilkes analysed over 4000 images of skin from four widely used textbooks. It found that images of dark skin varied from as low as 1% to 8% in their respective publications. 

The lack of variation in medical depiction was a reality also shared by Chidiebere Ibe, but the 25 year old Nigerian from Ebonyi State has gone above and beyond to address the issue. The aspiring neurosurgeon has documented his black centered medical illustrations online and the response has been incredible with the impact of various skin conditions, and more common anatomical illustrations being well received. Perhaps most popular however, has been the depiction of a black foetus which has taken many aback due to its rarity. Speaking to HuffPost, Ibe welcomed the positive reception which his work has garnered. 

“I feel great seeing it going vaifict0y I never expected it and it feels good that the message is out and it will challenge current systems.”

The implications of diversity in medical illustration are very real. Although writing within the context of the UK Art Papier, a physician and CEO at a medical informatics company explained: “Inflammation caused by increased blood flow appears red or pink on white skin. That’s what clinicians are trained to recognize. In brown or Black skin, though, inflammation often appears brown or violaceous. Most medical and nursing students, and even many experienced clinicians, don’t know that because most medical textbooks severely underrepresent disease manifestations on pigmented skin.

It’s not the first time such leadership has been shown by black medical students in recent times. Last year, at the age of just 20, Malone Mukwende, who was a medical student at St George’s, University of London published Mind the Gap`` written with two of his lecturers, Peter Tamony and Margot Turner. The book was designed to serve as a handbook for clinical signs on black and brown skin.

Mayowa Ayodele