Dalena Huynh

Crossing barriers through visual communication

Illustrations

The following work showcases my ability to create biomedical illustrations that represent diverse demographics and are clean, easy to read, and well composed.

Body Scientific’s Anatomy – An Overview of the Human Body

Media: Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, and Adobe InDesign
Purpose: Provide an anatomy text in which people of color can see themselves reflected throughout the learning experience—often for the first time—while also helping all learners recognize how representation has been historically limited in anatomical texts.
Contribution: Served as an illustrator and editorial contributor by producing figures, offering structural feedback, and assisting with overall page layout and formatting.
Link to the book: https://www.bodyscientific.com/post/announcing-body-scientific-s-anatomy-an-overview-of-the-human-body

Biologic Features of Extrachromosomal DNAs

Media: Adobe Illustrator
Purpose: The figure was created for the New England Journal of Medicine for the article on “Extrachromosomal DNA — Amping Up Cancer”
Link to the Article: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMcibr2415911

Craniosynostosis

Media: Adobe Creative Cloud (Photoshop and Illustrator)
Audience: Medical students or residents
Purpose: Designed as a clinical comparison between types of craniosynostosis, this piece features lateral and superior views that overlay pathological head shapes in magenta against a normal skull reference in cyan.

Created 2022; revised 2023

Cricothyrotomy: Post-Incision

Media: Adobe Illustrator
Audience: Medical students or residents
Purpose: This step-by-step procedural illustration guides medical students through the post-incision steps of a cricothyrotomy, utilizing insights observed at the UIC Simulation and Integrative Learning Institute. Across two pages, the piece omits standard supply lists to focus directly on tool application per step, beginning with anatomical placement at the trachea, shifting to simplified tool-focused steps for instructional clarity, and concluding with the secured tracheotomy tube attached to a BVM on the patient’s neck.

Level Up Your METs

Client: Cemal Ozemek, PhD and Hannah Ozemek, MS
Media: Adobe Illustrator
Audience: Physical therapy patients
Purpose: To communicate physical activity options effectively to a diverse patient population, this project was created in collaboration with the UIC Physical Therapy department to design a printed poster featuring a ribbon-style progression populated by diverse characters, offering a more engaging and accessible visual representation of MET levels than traditional graphs or charts.

Refusing Medical Intervention

Client: The American Journal of Bioethics
Media: Procreate and Adobe Photoshop
Audience: Academic audience with an interest in bioethics
Purpose: This editorial illustration cover was for the highlighted article, “Three Kinds of Decision-Making Capacity for Refusing Medical Intervention” (Navin et al.) published in the 2022 November edition of the American Journal of Bioethics. The article describes the different decision-making capacities (DMC) a patient may possess depending on comparative evaluation, burden, and goal. More information can be found on the AJOB website.

Navin MC, Brummett AL, Wasserman JA. Three Kinds of Decision-Making Capacity for Refusing Medical Interventions. Am J Bioeth. 2022 Nov;22(11):73-83. doi: 10.1080/15265161.2021.1941423. Epub 2021

Fragile Bud: Understanding Miscarriage

Media: Procreate and Adobe Creative Cloud (Photoshop and Illustrator)
Audience: General audience with interest, have experienced or impacted by miscarriage
Purpose: Visually represent flower buds as a symbol of miscarriage and to share information related to miscarriage in a landscape-formatted infographic.

Total Mastectomy

Media: Procreate and Adobe Creative Cloud (Photoshop and Illustrator)
Audience: Academic audience
Purpose: The illustration is of a step-by-step surgical procedure of total mastectomy. The illustration can be used as a poster or a two-page feature in a journal publication.

Medical Legal Visualization

Media: Procreate, Adobe Creative Cloud (Photoshop and Illustrator)
Audience: Jury
Purpose: Create an illustration that emphasizes the patient’s injury for trial exhibits by using X-ray, CT scan and MRI imaging.

Back to Top