Marvel meets MEDICINE
Find out how two doctors have used superheroes to help educate sick children about their illness.
Millions of children worldwide are diagnosed every day with conditions that even their parents may find difficult to comprehend. Most children don’t understand their medical conditions, or associated investigations, procedures and treatments, and are often scared by what is going on around them.
Medikidz was launched by two doctors in 2009, Dr Kim Chilman-Blair and Dr Kate Hersov whom, after working in paediatrics, became frustrated by the lack of engaging education for their young patients. During their time as doctors, they were unable to provide children with resources to help educate them about their new diagnoses or medicines – in their language, at their level. There exists worldwide, an enormous lack of useful material for young people around medicine and health – most of what exists targets parents only! This realisation was the catalyst which lead them to create Medikidz.
The ‘Medikidz’ are a gang of five largerthan- life superheroes from outer space, which are each specialists in different parts of the body. The characters are designed to be fun and appealing to young people in order to be able to entertain, as well as educate them about serious medical issues. They are destined to become characters with whom children can relate, and befriend.
The Medikidz characters live on ‘Mediland’ – a living, moving planet shaped just like the human body. The children are taught about their own body by going on a personal tour through Mediland. Medikidz is designed specifically for young people: therefore we will speak their language, at their level. Think “Marvel meets Medicine” and you have the concept!
With 35 current Medikidz titles on paediatric conditions (such as Epilepsy, Scoliosis, Leukaemia and Cystic Fibrosis) Medikidz have also produced titles relating to adult conditions, so that a parent/loved one, when faced with a diagnosis, has somewhere to turn to help them explain it to their children. Already published is “What’s Up With Mum? Medikidz Explain Breast Cancer” and “What’s Up With Dad? Medikidz Explain Melanoma” and with, “What’s Up With Grandpa? Medikidz Explain Alzheimer’s Disease”, with Colon Cancer, Parkinson’s, Multiple Sclerosis and Schizophrenia to follow.
Since launching in September 2009, for which Archbishop Desmond Tutu was the spokesperson, Medikidz has distributed over 1,000,000 comic books in 40 countries, demonstrating in this short space of time, the definite, substantial and unsatisfied need for the Medikidz initiative!
What originally began as a simple task of collating medical information for young patients in New Zealand turned into a gruelling mission. Dr. Kim Chilman-Blair and Dr Kate Hersov’s combined research highlighted the lack of information for children abroad, as well as in New Zealand. With a massive gap in the market waiting to be filled, both Dr Kate and Dr Kim gave up their full-time careers as doctors to focus solely on developing their medical comic book series and social networking website where children could connect and speak to each other about their experiences with various medical conditions. Finding unprecedented levels of support and enthusiasm coming from Europe and the US, Dr Hersov and Dr Chilman-Blair moved their operations to London to succesfully expand Medikidz as an international business.
Dr Kate Hersov
Dr Kate Hersov is the Deputy CEO and Co- Founder of Medikidz. She qualified as a doctor in 2004 after graduating from the University of Otago. Specialising mainly in Paediatrics, Emergency Medicine and Oncology, she also worked as a Medical Research Fellow at the Medical Research Institute of NZ. She authored a number of journal articles published across healthcare and pharmaceutical press.
She met Dr Kim Chilman-Blair at medical school. Both eventually found that they shared a common frustration with finding accessible medical information for young patients. It was then when they had an idea of comic books that would explain childhood medical conditions.
Dr Kim Chilman-Blair
Dr Kim Chilman-Blair is the CEO and Founder of Medikidz. Having worked in paediatrics for a number of years she found herself frustrated at the lack of medical resources accessible to children. With all the available material directed towards parents, she decided to create a product that would help young patients understand what was going on inside their bodies, and lessen the fear that came with a diagnosis.
While studying for a Masters in Entrepreneurship at the University of Otago and working full time as a paediatrician, Kim started writing stories that would eventually become the world’s first series of medical information comics for young people. After winning a $20,000 entrepreneurship challenge, she moved over to England with her colleague Dr Kate Hersov, to fully establish the company.
