Anatomy of an artist

Manitowoc's Heidi Dalberg excels as a medical illustrator

By Suzanne Weiss, Herald Times Reporter

MANITOWOC - Heidi Dalberg has mastered the art - and science - of medical illustration.
In her upstairs home office, illuminated by natural light filtering through a window with a southern exposure, she combines the two disciplines to draw anatomically correct pictures of the chambers of the heart, the eye or any number of other parts of the human body.

From dissecting cadavers in medical college to training in the ways of the old masters in art school, Dalberg is among a rare breed.

She is one of only six Wisconsin members of the Association of Medical Illustrators, and is believed to be the only medical illustrator in the state north of Milwaukee and Madison, she said.

"Basically, I serve as a visual translator for all the complex medical information," Dalberg said.

"A patient’s anxiety about a procedure can often be diminished if she understands how it is designed to help. Most people are visual learners, so a good illustration goes a long way towards that end," said Dr. Matthew Campbell, general surgeon with Holy Family Memorial’s Manitowoc Surgical Associates.

"Heidi is a fantastic artist who also has years of medical education. Her illustrations not only look good, but they are also medically accurate and are designed to be understood by everyone."

One of Dalberg’s challenges is gearing her illustrations to the audience for which it’s intended.

"For patient education, you actually leave things out that might confuse or clutter the drawing. You simplify, you clear out non-pertinent information so you can get right to the point," she said. "Surgical illustrations are more complex."

Dalberg’s work is used by medical researchers, doctors, professors, hospitals, therapists, advertisers and attorneys. It appears in textbooks, pamphlets, patient hand-outs, PowerPoint presentations, journals, newsletters and as medical animation. She even created a large oil painting of the muscles of a batter in full swing for a medical professional specializing in sports-related injuries. Her work can be used in the courtroom where evidence is presented in the form of poster boards. She builds her client base through word-of-mouth and networking.

"A medical illustrator pays a great amount of attention to detail in ensuring the anatomy is portrayed accurately to that of the human body," said Brad Lepinski, service line director for Heart and Vascular Care at Prevea Health in Green Bay. "Being able to work directly with an illustrator you are able to customize the illustrations exactly how you want them. This is not possible with pre-printed or stock images."

Dalberg created five custom colored illustrations of the heart, heart valves and circulatory system that Prevea incorporated into professionally printed educational guides for patients undergoing heart bypass or valve surgery.

"We found that pre-printed or stock medical illustrations did not suite our needs by giving us the detail or focus in the areas we wanted," Lepinski said. "Heidi was able to create the illustrations that complemented the text to help the patients better understand the information clearly."

Dalberg drew an illustration of a hiatal hernia to accompany Campbell’s "Ask a Doctor" column on reflux disease and hiatal hernias, which ran in the Herald Times Reporter in November.

"The finished product contained exactly the information I wanted it to have," Campbell said. "I’ve received numerous comments from patients and readers as to how helpful it was. Some have been told they have a hiatal hernia for years, but said they did not understand what that meant until they saw Heidi’s illustration. From the initial consultation with her, it was clear that this would not just be a drawing, but a customized educational device designed for the specific text of my article."

Dalberg discovered her love for art and science early on.

"I love to paint and draw. I’ve always loved science as well," said Dalberg, 30, who recalled examining pond water under a microscope as a child growing up in Manawa. "It was fun to see the unseen world that you couldn’t see with the naked eye."

At Winona State University in Minnesota, she took several art and science classes. Dalberg was thinking of pursuing a career in physical therapy until her biology advisor told her about the field of medical illustration.

When she wanted to fill in gaps in her art curriculum, she decided to pursue two years of specialized training at The Atelier Studio Program of Fine Art in Minneapolis and the Minnesota River School of Fine Art in Burnsville, Minn. She learned the ways of the old masters and how to see values, edges and colors.

"It was like someone pulled a cloud off my eyes and I was able to see better, like seeing the difference between cool yellow and warm yellow," she said.

She also took computer classes, vital to her occupation in which she makes use of illustrating software, a computerized drawing tablet and digital airbrush in additional to the traditional pen and ink and pencil.

Dalberg graduated from Winona State University with a Bachelor of Arts and a minor in biology.

The Medical College of Georgia in Augusta, from which Dalberg also graduated, offers one of only five accredited medical illustration programs in North America, she said.

"I just made it my mission to get into the program," she said. It was there that she performed surgery on pigs to study tissue dynamics, observed surgery in the operating room and learned human anatomy in the cadaver lab.

"That was fascinating to see how everybody’s body is different," Dalberg said. "The human body is resilient in its capacity to change and adapt."

She noticed how tissue reacts when a surgeon pulls on a suture and learned to recognize the varying colors of muscle, fat and connective tissue - all important to making her illustrations as realistic as possible.

Dalberg graduated from the Medical College of Georgia with a Master of Science degree in medical illustration and was finally able to combine her two loves.

She and her husband, Jared, an assistant professor of physical education and the athletic director at the University of Wisconsin-Manitowoc, moved to Manitowoc in 2007, and she started her business, Apex BioVisuals, out of their home, even though it’s far from many of the major hospitals in the state.

"In the digital world we live in, a lot of things are done by e-mail and phone. It doesn’t matter where you are," said Dalberg, pointing out that she still values face-to-face interactions.

Dalberg also teaches computer and art courses to people of all ages at the Rahr-West Art Museum in Manitowoc, and teaches digital photography for Lakeshore Technical College’s continuing education program.

For information, call Dalberg at (920) 629-9823, e-mail HeidiD@ApexBioVisuals.com or log on to www.apexbiovisuals.com.

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