Image Bank Appeal 2022 - Help us recognise every body

No two patients look the same. And yet in medical training there is a bias towards young, slim, male, white bodies.

One recent study analysed over 4,000 images from four major medical textbooks used in the UK and US and found only 4.5% of images showed people with a darker skin tone. This percentage not only largely underrepresents the diversity within the population of UK doctors but also the UK population as a whole. 

As a result, many trainees have reported a lack of trust in the medical education system’s ability to support non-white doctors, with many masking their identity to ‘fit in’ among their peers and avoid negative stereotyping. This raises the important question of how many good medical trainees we are losing because they are not fairly represented within medical education, which ultimately impacts patient care.

We are working to address this current bias in medical and surgical training materials. To achieve this, we will develop an online library of thousands of surface anatomy and surgical media showing a diversity of skin tones, body types, ages, genders and abilities. 

This library will be freely available for use by all in the medical education and publishing sectors to ensure the widest possible benefit for trainees, doctors and patients. We want to ensure that the surgeons of the future have access to images that are diverse, inclusive and accurately reflect themselves and the patients they serve.

We are looking to raise a total of £20,000 by spring 2022. Your donation will go towards medical photography, artists and models, studio hire, production and editing, and development of the digital platform.

Donate today and picture a different tomorrow.