New Perspectives from the AMI 2014 Annual Conference

Samantha Reba
Copywriter

The 2014 Association of Medical Illustrators (AMI) annual conference was held July 23-26 at the Mayo Clinic, in Rochester, Minnesota, and included keynote speaker sessions, workshops, a salon, a tour of the Mayo Clinic, and noteworthy networking opportunities. 

The AMI conference is a great opportunity for medical illustrators from all over the country to come together to hear lectures from esteemed professionals in the field and take classes that enhance their understanding of the latest techniques and digital programs.

The keynote speakers included sculptor and anatomy instructor Andrew Cawrse, Daniel H. Garrison, PhD, and medical artist Sarah Hegmann, MS, and Francine Mary Netter, MA, MBA, among dozens of others. 

Two of our esteemed medical illustrator/animators also attended the conference and workshops so they could expand their expertise in the technologies we use to meet our clients’ strategic needs. 

Jamie Rippke sat in on the session “High-Quality 3D Models from Medical Image Date-Osirix to ZBrush^® and Beyond,” which focused on ZBrush, a program that medical illustrators and animators at Artcraft Health work with daily. The workshop led attendees on a step-by-step process in creating high-quality surface models derived from medical imaging data, including MRIs and CT scans.

In his keynote session, Andrew Cawrse, whose works have been featured in Avatar, The Spiderwick Chronicles, Van Helsing, Dreamcatcher, and Star Wars Episode I and II, demonstrated the magnetic models he created through the use of ZBrush. 

“Surgical Treatment of Craniosynostosis” was a stand-out speaker session led by Nicholas M. Wetjen, MD, pediatric neurosurgeon and associate professor of neurosurgery and pediatrics as the Mayo Clinic. This session highlighted a new procedure for correcting craniosynostosis, a birth defect that causes babies’ heads to become misshapen, thereby preventing the brain from growing properly. Dr Wetjen led the audience through the procedure that the Mayo Clinic perfected to reconstruct the shape of the skull to facilitate normal brain growth.

For next year’s conference, Jamie hopes to attend more technique demonstrations and workshops for programs such as CINEMA 4D, ZBrush, Photoshop, and others. Both she and medical illustrator and 3D animator Brandon Keehner found these workshops extremely helpful, since they focus on the tools that Artcraft Health depends on every day to serve our clients. The AMI conference was a great opportunity for Jamie and Brandon to represent Artcraft Health and network with experts in the industry. “It’s reenergizing and allows us to think ‘outside the box’ on future assignments,” Jamie said. 

Brandon believes that the conference gets better every year, and this year was no exception. With the technology available for medical illustrators and animators being enhanced every day, the experience and knowledge gained at the AMI conference can be brought back to Artcraft Health and used to deliver unique solutions to clients, he said.

The conference offered our medical illustrators/animators a new perspective on how they can educate patients and aim to “Engage and Inspire.”