What is a medical illustrator?
A medical illustrator is a professional artist with extensive training in art, medicine and science who creates visual material to help communicate biomedical principles. The work of a medical illustrator ranges from highly realistic, precise pieces to more imaginative, conceptual pieces.

Many medical illustrators hold master's degrees from one of the five medical schools, accredited through the American Medical Association (AMA), that offer training in the field. Formal training includes gross anatomy, embryology, neuroanatomy, pathology, histology, surgery, hand drawing, pen & ink, design, animation and computer graphics. For more information on medical illustration go to The Association of Medical Illustrators (AMI) website.

How are the fees set for a medical illustration?
Medical illustrations are usually priced per illustration, but a group rate may be set for a large number of illustrations. Factors that contribute to the price are:

• How many illustrations are needed.
• What style of illustrations are needed: line, tone, color, b/w...
• The mode and duration of usage of the illustration: print, multimedia, web...
• What copyrights will be transferred.