The Rochester Institute of Technology’s Medical Illustration MFA program received initial accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP). The award recognizes the program’s compliance with national standards and guidelines established by the profession.
The Medical Illustrator Accreditation Review Board (ARC-MI) and the CAAHEP Board of Directors evaluated the RIT program and conducted the recent peer review. Accreditation standards are established by CAAHEP, ARC-MI and the Association of Medical Illustrators.
RIT’s MFA Medical Illustration is a two-year program housed in the College of Health Sciences and Technology that combines biomedical sciences, technology, art, and design.
Students enrolled in the Medical Illustration Graduate Program simultaneously take art classes, learn an array of interactive digital media, and biomedical science courses on human physiology, anatomy, and disease, including a lab of human corpses, according to James Perkins, RIT Professor Emeritus and Graduate Director. of the MFA program in medical illustration and head of the Department of Medical, Health and Management Sciences.
In the second year of the program, students take a course in surgical illustration and observe procedures in operating rooms at Rochester General Hospital, a university partner.
“Graduates of the RIT Medical Illustration Diploma find employment in a variety of employment sectors,” Perkins said. “Our graduates have choices and many of them work in hospitals, medical schools, research centers, medical publishers, as well as advertising agencies, web design companies, animation studios , law firms and other creative agencies. Many of our alumni work for the top scientific journals in North America.
The Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs evaluates programs that prepare health care professionals in various disciplines. Accreditation helps ensure a skilled workforce of healthcare professionals. The next full review of the RIT program will take place no later than 2025.