A cardiologist is utilising his love of art as part of his surgical approach.
Art is a vital part of Dr Jamil Aboulhosn’s cardiology.
By engaging in drawing or painting, the surgeon has found a way to switch off from his role as director of the Ahmanson/UCLA Adult Congenital Heart Disease Centre in Los Angeles, US.
Art also serves as a powerful tool in his interactions with patients, his training as an interventional cardiologist, and his teaching.
If he’s describing an upcoming procedure for a patient, he draws it for them.
‘Oftentimes, the patient will ask to have it so they can show it to their family and help explain what we're going to do,’ he said.
One of his earliest memories is from when he was five years old in Lebanon, lying under the couch with his sketchbook. His memories also included fighter jets during the civil war. When he was 10, artillery fire destroyed his home, and his artwork was burned. The family moved to Los Angeles.
With finances tight, he abandoned his dream of becoming a cartoonist for a more stable career as a physician.
Scholarships, loans, and side jobs as an artist funded his education at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine.
During his residency at Harbour-UCLA, he saw his first case of congenital heart disease, and ‘a light went off in my head’.
He pored over the patient’s CAT scan, intently studying the routing of a vein, how it connected to the heart. He pictured it in his mind and started to draw.
In an article published on UCLA Health, he said: ‘Right away I realised congenital cardiology is a field where it’s really clicking for me, like a Lego piece that finally found its home. I think it was because of the art.’
That complexity of the heart apart makes it a ‘veritable playground’ for art, he said.
‘What I absolutely love is when somebody sends me a case where it's a real head scratcher. I’ll look at the anatomic imaging and then I’ll just sit there with a pen or a pencil, and I'll just sketch what I think I can do.’
For more on how drawing and painting inspire his cardiology practice, click here.
