Medical Illustration Podcast - Biomedical Communications 80th Anniversary

Welcome back to the Medical Illustration podcast, this is your host, Paul Kelly, and I am thrilled to share with you this special episode of the podcast. This year, 2025, marks the 80th anniversary of Toronto, Ontario, Canada’s Biomedical Communications program, from which I  graduated in 2011. The 2 years I spent in this program were quite literally life changing. Without a doubt the most intensely transformative years of my life, and positively so in every way.

Guys, you are all really going to enjoy this discussion with BMC’s current director, Michael Corrin–whose reputation extends throughout the medical illustration community as someone who lives and breathes visualization in myriad forms. Michael embodies a rare combination of a true polymath in creative abilities, and an encouraging, enthusiastic, charismatic educator–

and Dr Shelley Wall, equally prolific in her influence on the BMC program’s culture and creative output, Shelley’s exceptional artistic abilities have shaped countless student portfolios across generations, while pioneering work in medical comics–continuing to redefine how visual storytelling intersects with healthcare education. Shelley has also served as narrator for countless BMC graduate animations.

Beginning as “Art as Applied to Medicine”--a diploma course in 1945, at the University of Toronto, Biomedical Communications, or BMC, evolved into a graduate degree program over the past 80 years, within the Institute of Medical Science starting in 1994, and the Department of Biology at the University of Toronto-Mississauga, or UTM, in 2010. This involved several restructuring phases under the guidance and direction of several incredibly unique individuals. Today we’re going to talk about some of these important milestones and figures in BMC’s history, and we’ll be talking a lot about where the program is today and where it’s headed.

LINKS

• The Biomedical Communications program at the University of Toronto—Mississauga

  • BMC program history

• Association of Medical Illustrators

  • AMI Online Learning Committee

• Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP)

• Maria Wishart

• Nancy Graham Joy

• Linda Wilson-Pauwels

• Gladys McHugh

• Radivoj Krstic

• Max Brödel

• Lydia Gregg

• Margot Mackay

• Steve Gilbert

• Bill Andrews