Medical Illustrator Notes on iPhone: Anatomical Reference, SME Feedback & Project Notes

Note-Taking for Medical Illustrators

Medical illustration sits at the intersection of science, medicine, and art. Whether you're creating surgical atlases, pharmaceutical marketing graphics, patient education materials, or legal exhibits, you're translating complex medical content into visual form that must be both accurate and accessible. Client briefings, scientific literature review, feedback from SME reviewers, and technique notes all accumulate rapidly across a project.

Nemos keeps that information organized and searchable from your iPhone.

What Medical Illustrators Note

Project and client briefing: - Client audience notes (patient vs. surgeon vs. jury vs. medical student) - Accuracy review notes from physician or scientist reviewers - Art direction feedback from creative directors at medical communications agencies - Usage context and resolution requirements (print, interactive, animation, legal exhibit)

Anatomical and scientific reference: - Notes from literature review — specific anatomy sources, edition and page for key references - Terminology clarifications from subject matter experts - Common student errors to avoid in educational illustrations - Procedural sequence accuracy notes for surgical illustration

Technique and workflow: - Digital brush and layer strategy notes for ZBrush, Cinema 4D, or Photoshop - Rendering approach decisions for specific tissue types (vasculature, parenchyma, bone cross-section) - Color palette notes for publication-specific requirements - Printing and pre-press notes for atlas or textbook work

Professional development: - AMI (Association of Medical Illustrators) certification and recertification notes - Conference and workshop takeaways (Visualizing Science, AMI annual) - Portfolio direction notes

Capturing SME Review Sessions

Physician and scientist reviewers often give dense verbal feedback: "The hepatic artery branching here is incorrect — see Grant's 14th edition figure 2.7B" or "The mitral valve leaflets should show the chordae tendineae at this stage of the procedure." Capturing this precisely during the session, in Nemos, prevents critical accuracy errors from being lost.

FAQ

How do I organize notes by project? Use project name as a tag (e.g., `#GI-atlas`, `#cardiac-animation`, `#knee-exhibit`). Each project gets a summary note with client, subject matter, deliverables, and active reviewer contacts.

What about reference source tracking? Capture author, title, edition, and page or figure number when a reviewer points you to a specific anatomical reference. "Gray's 41st, plate 1.3" is precise enough to retrieve; "gray's anatomy" is not.

Should I note technique decisions? Yes — particularly for techniques you don't use on every project. "For subsurface scattering on skin renders: note settings that worked for this tissue type" is exactly the kind of thing to capture.

How do I handle revision tracking? A "revision history" note per project with dates and change descriptions helps when clients ask about earlier versions or approval chains.

Is Nemos useful for portfolio planning? Use it for notes on what types of work you want to develop next, which potential clients to approach, and what skills gaps to address.

What about notes from anatomy classes or dissection labs? Personal learning notes from continuing anatomy education — observations, mnemonic devices, clinically significant variation examples — are excellent Nemos content.

Related Reading

• Game Artist Notes on iPhone
• Motion Graphics Artist Notes on iPhone
• Book Illustrator Notes on iPhone
• Creative Professional iPhone Workflow

Sources

• AMI (Association of Medical Illustrators) board certification standards
• Scientific illustration best practices from medical communications industry
• Grant's Atlas of Anatomy and Gray's Anatomy for illustrator reference standards