Dr. Alex Thomas, a Chicago-based pediatric allergist and cartoonist, is using animated videos and superhero comics to help his young patients breathe easier; helping kids to understand what asthma is, and how medications work. Medications are the heroes, and allergens become villains in the Iggy And The Inhalers series – a line of comics, posters, videos, stickers and trading cards. They all star superheroes like Iggy The Inhaler; Broncho The Bronchodilator and Coltron The Controller fighting villain-allergens like The Roach, Smokey Joe; Moldar and Pollenoid; The Dust Mite and Hairy.
Doctor Uses Comics To Teach Kids About AsthmaThis doctor makes comics, stickers, and trading cards to help kids understand asthma
Posted by NowThis on Wednesday, January 6, 2016
“What we are trying to do is to insert scientific information into those metaphors so that kids are excited to be learning about super heroes and learning about super villains, and the strength and the weakness without kind of realizing they are actually leaning about asthma pathology, asthma triggers and the correct use of medications, and the mechanisms of action. For example, one of the questions was how does a ‘Bronchodilator’ work as a type of asthma medication. Before the comic book, 18 percent kids got it right. After the comic book, 68 percent kids got it right,” Thomas told Voice of America.
The characters and comics are a big hit with young patients. 11-year-old Abigail Burgos told CBS Chicago:
“I just like the characters that he added in. It helps me because it shows you what happening inside your body. It’s a lot easier to understand and it’s like you can just kick back and just read it.”
Many of the characters from Iggy And The Inhalers were created, when as an 11-year-old Thomas, a kid with asthma, was overwhelmed by his illness and trying to make sense of it. He started drawing an Iggy The Inhaler comic in a quarterly newsletter for an asthma support group his mother – a pediatric allergist – ran at the time.
20 years later, as a pediatric resident physician at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he used those characters to teach young patients and their parents the causes, the effects, and appropriate use of different medications for asthma. Today, Iggy And The Inhalers is being used by doctors, nurses, teachers, and asthma educators around the country.
“Last year, Iggy And The Inhalers was part of a school-based asthma education program in the Dane County public school system [in Wisconsin]. This past summer, the Iggy program was used in over 50 asthma camps nationwide. Iggy And The Inhalers is also being used by various public health departments, hospitals, and clinics across the country. We are constantly updating our materials to be up to date with current guidelines and standards of practice. We are also working on a mobile app as well as new episodes of the comic series,” Thomas told NBC News.
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