Jo Yeon Seul Choi, a second-year student in the Master of Science in Biomedical Communications program at the University of Toronto, created the cover illustration for the June 2024 issue of Oral Health magazine. Oral Health is a monthly clinical publication with a circulation of more than 22,000 dental professionals.
The Oral Health June editor Dr. Bruce Pynn, oral and maxillofacial surgeon and Chief of Dentistry at Thunder Bay Regional Hospital, contacted the Biomedical Communications (BMC) program with the opportunity.
A University of Toronto alum, Dr. Pynn says that he knew of the BMC program through collaborations in the 1990s with the Art as Applied to Medicine students. As a student, Dr. Pynn was the editor of the student dental journal. Art as Applied to Medicine was the undergraduate bachelor of science degree that preceded the graduate Master of Science in Biomedical Communications, which was established in 1994.
Choi’s illustration of a skull and brain depicts the rare but dire consequences of some dental infections where bacteria can travel to the brain.
Choi says that depicting the skull at a three-quarter view allowed her to show cavities in the molars. She overlaid the skull with a cross-section of the brain in situ, and referenced CT scans to accurately represent the size of an abscess. As there are many different bacteria that can cause infections, she illustrated representative shapes of cocci, rod-like, and spiral bacteria.
Choi says that she enjoyed the collaborative experience of working with Dr. Pynn, and their collaboration led to another cover illustration for Dental Update, a peer-reviewed clinical journal for general dental practitioners in the United Kingdom.
“They came out the same month on two different sides of the ocean. Quite a feat,” says Dr. Pynn.
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Web sites referenced
Jo Choi’s online portfolio https://www.jochoi.ca/
Our History–From BSc to MSc https://bmc.med.utoronto.ca/projects