How One Pathologist’s Illustrations Are Transforming Patient Education

In February 2025, the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) announced a new partnership with MyPathologyReport.ca, a clinician-run website that helps patients better understand their pathology reports. The site features hundreds of easy-to-understand articles, along with an “Ask a Pathologist” feature where patients can submit questions. 

The website is a novel way to empower patients in their care, but one thing that makes MyPathologyReport so unique is its engaging visual content. The patient-friendly medical illustrations simplify complex pathology conditions and terms, making the information more accessible to patients.  

These eye-catching illustrations were all created by a single person: Zuzanna Gorski, MD, Dermatopathology Fellow at Dalhousie University. In addition to writing for the site, she combines her artistic talent with her medical expertise to create the engaging drawings. 

Dr. Gorski spoke with Critical Values about how she got started with MyPathologyReport and why it plays such a vital role in patient care. 

Turning a hobby into a calling  

MyPathologyReport.ca was launched in 2018 by Jason Wasserman, MD, PhD, FRCPC. For the first couple of years, the site didn’t have any illustrations. But that all changed after Dr. Gorski got involved.  

Early in her first year of residency, she was invited to contribute research to the site.  

“I was inspired by the work they’d done and how it helps patients,” she says. 

When she learned that Dr. Wasserman wanted to add illustrations but didn’t know anyone with the right skill set, Dr. Gorski offered to give it a try. She didn’t have any formal experience, but she turned out to be a perfect fit. 

“I was more of a hobby doodler,” she says. “I liked art when I was a kid, and I took art lessons. But I was never involved in any major projects like this. So it’s meaningful to me that I can blend my hobby with my work.” 

The drawings aren’t work; they’re fun

Dr. Gorski has been working with MyPathologyReport for nearly six years now, and her illustrations and skills have steadily evolved. 

“I draw on an iPad with an app called Procreate,” she says. “It’s a great tool, and I feel like I’ve just scratched the surface of what it offers. I experiment with it and change my style as I learn.” 

Each drawing can take anywhere from just a few minutes to a couple of hours. 

“It depends on how many individual cells are in the drawing,” Dr. Gorski says. “Each cell takes its own time to draw.”  

She and Dr. Wasserman have an ongoing list of articles that need illustrations, prioritized based on which get the most website traffic.  

“The list is never-ending,” Dr. Gorski says. “Articles are being written so frequently that it’s hard to keep up.”  

But she doesn’t mind. To her, the drawings aren’t work. They’re fun.  

“I do them in my free time, the evenings or weekends,” she says. “It’s relaxing. I don’t think of it as extra work. I can be watching a movie or sitting on my couch. It doesn’t feel like a task that’s stressful. I enjoy doing them.”  

Creating with the patients in mind 

When deciding how she wants her illustrations to look, Dr. Gorski draws inspiration from her work.  

“When we write our pathology reports, we make sure it’s clear, so clinicians know what we’re talking about. And the patients as well, because they have access to their reports,” she says. “When I do my drawings, I also think, ‘Will a patient understand this? Should I make it simpler, or should I expand on it? It’s where all my inspiration comes from. It’s what I do every day but translated into an art form.”  

To make sure patients can understand her drawings, she even sometimes sends them to her parents — who aren’t in medicine — to get their reaction.  

“I’ll ask them, ‘Do you know what I’m trying to convey here?’” she says.  

Out of all her illustrations, Dr. Gorski says that her favorites are the ones that show both the larger picture of a medical condition and the cellular level.  

“The ones I enjoy the most are the ones where you have both a gross anatomy aspect and a microscopic aspect,” she says. “For example, I’ll draw a picture of what the lungs look like, and right next to it show what that looks like under a microscope. That makes it even better for patients to understand, so they have the context of where tissue is coming from. Those drawings take me a bit longer and they’re more complex, but the end product is my favorite.”  

In fact, the whole purpose of MyPathologyReport.ca is to help patients understand the complexities of pathology. The site’s Ask a Pathologist feature is especially popular.  

“People from all over the world write in, and they’re not always in English,” Dr. Gorski says. “It can be a bit of a barrier, but Dr. Wasserman and his team do their best to answer all the questions. It’s a great feature, because patients are so overwhelmed with the amount of information they get in their pathology report.” 

Dr. Gorski is grateful to be part of the website.  

“I feel really fortunate to be part of this project,” she says. “And I’m happy to contribute in whatever way I can, even if it’s just little drawings that help patients understand. It’s something I can do for the rest of my career, and even afterwards.”