week four | medicine + technology + art

I underwent many x-rays and MRIs in my childhood due to the intense sport that I played, and while I was never in the radiologist’s office for a good reason, I was always so excited to be there purely because I loved to look at the resulting scans– it was like playing I-Spy trying to spot a break in my bone or a tear in my ligament. I loved this so much to the point of me dreaming of becoming a radiologist when I grew up. It really is like a piece of art, so many details that I could stare at forever. The intersections and angles seem so posed, yet it is all crafted by nature and structured in the strongest, most efficient way possible. 


Artist and businessman Virgil Wong uses technological scans and anatomical drawings as some of many forms of media of which he produces art with. He uses these pieces to allow others to physically be able to see inside of the body– he morphed this into an app that implores its users to evaluate their health information which allows them to make informed decisions about cost, insurance, etc.. Wong combined his passion for art and his personal connection to human heath to create something so dynamic and interesting that it intrigues an audience to make educated decisions concerning their health.  


“Psychiatric Robot Analyst With Neuroimaging” (Wong)


Preview of the anatomical sketches in Wong’s app


Virgil Wong’s work is just one example of how art is intertwined with medicine– as Professor Vesna mentioned in her lecture, medicine was once considered a form of art which excluded the use of technology. This comment was so interesting to me, as I have always separated the concepts of art and medicine, and always combined the concepts of medicine and technology; yet, to find out that technology was not introduced into this field until around the 20th century is astonishing, and the quick development that has proceeded over the last century is amazing (for example, the quality of the very first x-ray machine versus modern day x-ray machines). 


First x-ray ever taken, by Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen




Works Cited

“Art.” Virgil Wong, https://www.virgilwong.com/art/. Accessed 22 April 2022.

Cristea, Mihai. “How Has Technology Impacted The Medical Field? - Business Review.” Business-Review.eu, 26 March 2020, https://business-review.eu/business/healthcare/how-has-technology-impacted-the-medical-field-208985. Accessed 22 April 2022.

“The first X-ray photograph​: Rhodri Marsden's Interesting Objects.” The Independent, 6 November 2015, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/the-first-xray-photograph-rhodri-marsden-s-interesting-objects-no-86-a6721131.html. Accessed 22 April 2022.

“Meet Full Spectrum speakers Onyx Ashanti and Virgil Wong.” TED Blog, 30 May 2011, https://blog.ted.com/meet-full-spectrum-speakers-onyx-ashanti-and-virgil-wong/. Accessed 22 April 2022.

Panda, S C. “Medicine: science or art?.” Mens sana monographs vol. 4,1 (2006): 127-38. doi:10.4103/0973-1229.27610

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