Pow! Boom! Zap! Children turn to comic books to be entertained, to escape, and to let their imaginations run wild. Thanks to Medikidz, a medical education brand with offices in London, the U.S., and Australia, children can also use comics to learn important information about their own health and the health of those around them.

Medikidz uses the comic book medium to morph heavy, complicated concepts into easy-to-read word balloons, eye-popping artwork, and vivid colors. Recently, their projects have been lauded by several radiology associations for their ability to help educate young patients.

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The comics can also help children understand issues loved ones are going through. Why is mom sick? What is going on with grandpa?

The Medikidz story (or perhaps we should call it a saga, since we’re talking comic books here) began several years ago, when CEO Kate Hersov, MBChB, was practicing pediatrics at Wellington Hospital in New Zealand. Hersov became frustrated that there wasn’t a better way to hold the attention of her younger patients and educate them about their health.

“It was staggering that there were no resources that could explain to these children what was happening to them, at their level of understanding,” Hersov told RadiologyBusiness.com. “And anything that did exist was for parents. This realization was the catalyst that lead a colleague and I to co-found Medikidz. So together we set out on a mission, to try and enhance children's health by empowering a young person with engaging medical education, in their language and at their level, to create a global community of children who were informed, empowered and health-aware.”

After a lot of hard work and research, Hersov said the answer was clear: they would grab the attention of children everywhere by getting creative and channeling their inner Stan Lee.

“We created our own medical superheroes, the Medikidz—like Marvel meets medicine,” Hersov said. “We use these characters as the vehicle to engage children, so we can educate them.”  

Building a brand

Medikidz launched in 2009, and has gone on to be a runaway success for Hersov and her team. The Medikidz superheroes have been featured in over 120 original books, translated into 30 languages and distributed in 50 countries, adding up to a total of almost 4 million comic books.

Medikidz also works to avoid repetitiveness with its storylines. The comics cover a wide variety of subjects to maximize their usefulness to children, families and physicians.

“We have written titles on common conditions like Eczema and Asthma, as well as incredibly rare diagnoses like urea cycle disorders and Niemann-Pick disease,” Hersov said. “Often, it is in these rare diseases where the families really are at a loss with the lack of information. We field requests for new topics from families, healthcare professionals and patient advocacy groups as well as industry stakeholders who are looking to support the disease community through providing disease education.”

The company’s team of doctors write a majority of the comics, which are also co-written by comic writers and peer-reviewed by a team of specialists.

Sharing the stories

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Whenever possible, Medikidz works with various organizations to help spread the word about its resources. The end goal, Hersov explained, is to make the books completely free to the patients who will eventually be enjoying them.

“Medikidz endeavors to create sponsoring partnerships with leading pharmaceutical and medical device companies across the different therapeutic areas in which we work,” Hersov said. “This way the Medikidz resources can be provided at no cost to healthcare professionals and therefore patients and their families.”

For example, Medikidz teamed up with BTG Interventional Medicine in March 2015 to launch Medikidz Explain Primary Liver Cancer, an original comic that is free in the U.S. for healthcare providers. The book was endorsed by the Society of Interventional Radiology, the Association for Radiologic & Imaging Nursing, and the British Society of Interventional Radiology. The British Liver Trust assisted with its content.

Looking ahead

Medikidz is currently working on several new ways to help educate and engage children. The company is developing a new digital series, for instance, that allows patients at children’s hospitals to access Medikidz content from their hospital bed. And a “condition map” is in the works that will help reassure young patients they aren’t alone in their struggle.

Hersov said she also sees her company as a way to help children make better decisions about their own health, and hopes to continue pushing Medikidz in that direction.

“We have started harnessing this power of superheroes to create programs around preventive health topics, and the necessity to engage children in their health is only going to become more of an imperative as the problems of poor lifestyle choices in the young population worsens and the burden of the resulting medical conditions increases,” Hersov said.  

Learn more about Medikidz.