Medikidz: AN IDEA dreamed up in a Dunedin student flat is sweeping the world and this week comes home to New Zealand.
Medikidz comic books – the brainchild of former Hawke′s Bay doctor Kim Chilman-Blair – tell sick children aged 10-15 what their illness is, what medication will do and what treatments it will involve.
The 34-year-old doctor said she realised while training at Auckland′s Starship hospital that there was a gap in resources available to children to tell them – in a way they would understand – what was happening to them.
After completing her degree in 2003 and while working part-time in paediatrics, she decided to take action and went back to Otago University to complete a Masters of Entrepreneurship, focusing on the idea, now called Medikidz.
She joined forces with fellow Otago graduate Kate Hersov to produce the books and the pair moved to London to be closer to larger markets. They have since employed a team of 21 and published 20 comic books.
Since last September′s official launch, more than 600,000 of the comics have been sold to hospitals, doctors′ clinics and families in the UK, US, India and Europe.
The Medikidz are a gang of five superheroes who each specialise in a different part of the human body and live on “Mediland”, a planet shaped like a human. Each book is co-written by doctors and peer-reviewed by consultants in the field. John Taddeo, of Marvel Comics fame, is one of the graphic artists involved.
To date there have been books on asthma, diabetes, epilepsy, HIV, swine flu and attention deficit disorder, and another 300 topics are set to be explored. The comics were released in Australia last week and will be available in New Zealand from Tuesday. One of New Zealand′s richest men, Owen Glenn, has bought 500 and donated them to Starship.