Cade Kilambi (left), Ryan Rouse and Shivani Koundinya (right) worked with volunteer illustrators, like Nandini Arunachalam (middle) to create the visual resources.

For Shivani Koundinya, the inspiration for Art Medic was both personal and practical. After years of translating medical information for her parents, she recognized the urgent need for clearer patient communication. That understanding deepened during her service with Alpha Epsilon Delta, the pre-med honors society she led as president. While volunteering at local hospitals, she saw visual aids used to help bridge communication barriers.

“My parents and I are first-generation immigrants to the U.S.,” Koundinya said. “Growing up, we faced many challenges navigating the American medical system, especially since no one in our family had a background in medicine. I often found myself translating not just the language, but also complex medical concepts and processes for my parents. That experience ultimately inspired me to pursue a career in medicine.”

Fellow biomedical engineering students Ryan Rouse and Cade Kilambi joined forces with Koundinya to create Art Medic, a digital platform designed to help healthcare workers communicate more effectively with patients who have limited English proficiency or low health literacy. The site offers a growing library of visual resources that can supplement verbal explanations of symptoms, side effects, treatments and more.

Koundinya leads coordination and community outreach, Kilambi handles operations and logistics, and Rouse manages finances and budgeting for the project.

Art Medic will feature a database of images that can be viewed on a tablet or similar device or printed as documents to be shared during medical visits, Kilambi explained.

The group hopes to improve health outcomes for immigrants, refugees and others who may face language or cultural barriers when accessing healthcare.

“The illustrations cover topics such as taking medications, understanding the symptoms of illnesses, operating medical devices or providing overviews of procedures patients may undergo,” Koundinya said.

Medical staff can use the database to find relevant images tailored to a patient’s visit or procedures, helping clarify health communication between patients, caregivers and hospital staff.

The McMillon Innovation Studio connected the group to the Community Clinic where health staff advised them on the next steps to develop a workable project plan that addressed not only patient needs, but also how the tool could work in a medical setting.

“They advised us to start with a collection of resources to create a database of images,” Koundinya said. “Once we have that, we can begin translating the text into multiple languages like Marshallese, Spanish and Farsi.”

Visual Resources created by Cade, Ryan, Shivani and Nandini

To create the images, the group tapped into their honors network and quickly found students with both an interest in medicine and a talent for design. They also enlisted support from Jonathan Langley, director of graduate and professional school planning in the Honors College Futures Hub, who circulated an interest form to pre-med students.

“We hope the illustrations on the website will provide clear information about what patients can expect during their visits,” Rouse said. “Our goal is to support individuals transitioning into the American healthcare system, including those who may have never accessed healthcare in their home countries.”

Langley believes that projects like Art Medic—those with an interdisciplinary approach to a complex problem such as healthcare accessibility—are transformative for students who are planning to continue their education.

“The skills that students learn through these multifaceted methods of answering difficult, pressing questions will allow them to not only succeed in their next educational step, but also to continue tackling complex issues throughout their careers.” Langley said.

The team hopes to launch Art Medic as a nonprofit once the project is further along. For now, they’re focused on expanding the image database and conducting customer discovery. Once those pieces are in place, they plan to establish a charitable foundation and fundraise to support their outreach.

“One of the tools I saw being utilized is a piece of software that hospitals and clinics must pay to implement, but I don’t think that should be necessary.” Koundinya said.

Koundinya, Rouse, and Kilambi plan to continue working on the project even as they head in different directions after graduation. Koundinya and Rouse will begin medical school at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock, while Kilambi is pursuing an M.B.A. at the Sam M. Walton College of Business.

“As we move on to graduate and medical school, we definitely plan to continue collaborating,” Koundinya said, noting that the team will manage most of the project virtually, with Kilambi serving as their point of contact on campus.