Louis Schmidt Award

The Louis Schmidt Committee of the BioCommunications Association is pleased to announce that Kathy Jane McFall, MSc, Hon FIMI is the 2018 Louis Schmidt Laureate. Kathy’s career in medical photography, video and teaching spans some twenty-five years. Kathy serves as the Head of Medical Illustration Services at the NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde, Queen Elizabeth University Hospital. She lectures on behalf of the Medical Humanities Unit at the University of Glasgow, and has tutored students undertaking the BSc in Medical Illustration at Glasgow Caledonian University. She is the Chairman of the Institute of Medical Illustrators and a Fellow of the Institute of Medical Illustrators.

Kathy’s leadership in the field of BioCommunications is evident when you consider that she was recognized with the Norman K. Harrison Gold Medal Award in 2007. This is the highest recognition that the Institute of Medical Illustrators can bestow on one of its members for their contributions to our field and our profession. This award, in its prestige is very similar to the Louis Schmidt Award she will be receiving this evening.
Kathy has served leadership roles in many professional organizations that are committed to dissemination of information about imaging in the health and nat-ural sciences. In 2004 she was elected to the Board of Directors and then served as President of The Health and Sciences Communications Association (HESCA) for two years from 2007–08.

During her tenure with HESCA, she was instrumental in setting up exchanges, so members from the IMI and HESCA could attend each other’s national meetings en-couraging an appreciation and cross fertilization that benefited both organizations and their membership.

In June 2009 in ST. Louis, MO – Kathy was awarded HeSCA’s Distinguished Service Award for her outstanding level of service and positive energy during her many years on the HeSCA Board. She was also recognized for her work as President over the past year, and her role in the transition to the Journal of Visual Communication in Medicine.

In yet another of her many leadership roles, Kathy took on the job of Editor for the prestigious Journal of Visual Communication in Medicine, (formerly, Journal of Audio Visual Media in Medicine). As Journal Editor for eight years, she was directly responsible for steering many articles to the printed page. She left her scholarly imprint on that journal. Working with scores of authors; photographers, graphic artist, medical illustrators and publishers, to disseminate information to all participants in the Biomedical imaging field. Although she is no longer editor, she continues to serve on the international board of the Journal.

She has been extremely active in the Institute of Medical Illustrators and served many roles in that organization over the years as well. Kathy served as Chair for the annual IMI conferences in 2012 and 2016.