How a Miller School of Medicine Student Uses Comics to Explore Health and Belonging

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Through comics, medical student Iris Hyun-A Kim explores how identity, culture and community shape people’s experiences of illness, medical training and belonging.

Medical students spend years learning how to distill complex experiences into concise clinical notes. Iris Hyun-A Kim occasionally does the opposite, transforming symptoms and diagnoses into colorful, intricate comics.

Through illustration and storytelling, Kim, a third-year University of Miami Miller School of Medicine medical student, explores the emotional realities that surround illness and how identity, culture and community shape how people experience their health.

“Comics…people think of them very lightly. But I think it’s actually a very effective way to share important messages,” she said.

Her work spans a wide range of subjects. Some comics capture the everyday rituals of medical training, like crowded pockets filled with snacks and pens, predawn alarms before surgery rotations and lessons learned in hospital hallways. Others tackle more personal topics, including living with eczema, navigating cultural identity and searching for community.

Together, they reveal a commonality that emerged for Kim long before medical school.

“I think belonging has been a theme throughout my life,” Kim said.

As an undergraduate at Vanderbilt University, Kim helped lead student efforts to establish Asian American studies. She later spent a year in South Korea as a Fulbright scholar studying members of the Korean diaspora, examining how identity, migration and community influence health and well-being. Rather than relying solely on traditional academic approaches, she incorporated narrative storytelling into her research. It was an early indication of her desire to understand people through their experiences, not just data.

This journey continues to shape both her creative and scientific pursuits.

Many of her comics explore the aspects of health that are difficult to measure, like uncertainty, stigma, loneliness and connection. Growing up with severe eczema, she became interested in how visible conditions can influence a person’s sense of self and their interactions with others. Those experiences ultimately drew her toward dermatology. She became fascinated by the disease and the human stories that accompany it.

Today, Kim is spending a year at the National Institutes of Health through the Medical Research Scholars Program, conducting research on melanoma and rare familial skin cancers.

“I think my interests in research and comics both stem from a desire to feel seen and known, and hopefully I can help others feel that same sense of belonging,” she said.

That motivation also shaped her tenure as editor-in-chief of Obliterants , the Miller School’s medical humanities journal. There she helped create space for students, trainees and faculty members to reflect through writing and art.

“Especially as students, trainees or faculty, it’s really hard to sit still and get creative and just let yourself reflect,” Kim said. “But it’s been so good for me to slow down and process.”

Her comics are a reminder that behind every diagnosis is a story and that, sometimes, understanding a person’s health begins with helping them feel seen.

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