Many illuminated manuscripts and Arabic scholarly treatises of the medieval period contained illustrations representing various anatomical systems (circulatory, nervous, urogenital), pathologies, or treatment methodologies.

Many of these illustrations can look odd to modern eyes, since they reflect early reliance on classical scholarship (especially Galen) rather than direct observation, and the representation of internal structures can be fanciful.

An early high-water mark was the 1543 CE publication of Andreas Vesalius's De Humani Corporis Fabrica Libri Septum, which contained more than 600 exquisite woodcut illustrations based on careful observation of human dissection.

In the late 1890s, Max Brödel, a talented artist from Leipzig, was brought to The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore to illustrate for Harvey Cushing, William Halsted, Howard Kelly, and other notable clinicians.

In addition to being an extraordinary artist, he created new techniques, such as carbon dust, that were especially suitable to his subject matter and then-current printing technologies.

Its members are primarily artists who create material designed to facilitate the recording and dissemination of medical and bioscientific knowledge through visual communication media.

In 1959, the Johns Hopkins University approved a two-year graduate program leading to the university-wide degree of Master of Arts in Medical and Biological Illustration.

UIC previously offered an extensive study in the field of anaplastology (facial and somatic prosthetics) and medical sculpture, though it is no longer available in the current curriculum.

In addition, computer technologies and digital techniques, used to prepare both vector and raster images for print and motion media, are well and extensively integrated into the curriculum.

Faculty and graduates of the program contributed the drawings for Grant's Atlas of Anatomy, a renowned guide to dissection, structure, and function for medical students.

Lewis Boyd Waters, who studied under Max Brodel at Johns Hopkins in the 1920s, was a founding member of the medical school and was responsible for starting the master's program.

[9] Medical illustrators also work in three dimensions, creating anatomical teaching models, patient simulators, games, and facial prosthetics.