PHYSICIAN · SCIENTIST · ARTIST
Reimagining how illness and life transitions are
seen, recorded, and shared.
How can art, imaging, and narrative help reclaim the self in a changing body?
Kimberly Lovie Murdaugh, MD MS MPH is a physician-scientist and artist working at the intersection of medicine, public health, and the creative arts. Trained at Harvard University and Yale School of Medicine, she designs new ways of seeing and communicating the lived experience of illness.
RESEARCH & INNOVATION
Imaging methods, clinical tools, AI communication systems — my work helps people see and share the experience of illness, and treats perceiving the body and caring for it as inseparable.
Clinical communication & AI
Building and studying tools that support how clinicians communicate in serious illness.
Women's health
Innovative imaging, devices, and educational materials across obstetric, gynecologic, and menopause care.
View papers (8)
- Human seminal plasma hypersensitivity: an underrecognized cause of postcoital allergic symptoms — Int. Journal of Women's Dermatology, 2026 (in press)
- Small estimated placental volume (EPV) in the setting of decreased fetal movement — Clinical Imaging, 2023
- Coital positions and clitoral blood flow: a biomechanical and sonographic analysis — Sexologies, 2022
- Clitoral blood flow after use of gel containing L-arginine and L-citrulline — Sexologies, 2022
- Pilot sonographic study of clitoral blood flow and size after use of sexual devices — Sexologies, 2022
- The role of screening mammography in addressing disparities in breast cancer diagnosis, treatment, and outcomes — Current Breast Cancer Reports, 2021
- Estimated placental volume and gestational age — American Journal of Perinatology, 2018
- A new laparoscopic morcellator using an actuated wire mesh and bag — Journal of Medical Devices, 2014
Lung health
Thoracic imaging and accurate pulmonary diagnostics.
View papers (3)
- Biologic readiness: improving tuberculosis screening in an adult allergy and immunology clinic — JACI: Global, 2026
- A multicomponent behavior change and implementation strategy to increase lung cancer screening in primary care practices: the IBREATHE study — JACR, 2025
- A case-based review of vaping-induced injury: pulmonary toxicity and beyond — Current Problems in Diagnostic Radiology, 2020
Nanomedicine
How engineered zinc oxide nanoparticles move through the body, and how to make them safer.
View papers (4)
- Surface modification of zinc oxide nanoparticles with amorphous silica alters their fate in the circulation — Nanotoxicology, 2015
- Effects of zinc oxide nanoparticles on Kupffer cell phagosomal motility, bacterial clearance, and liver function — Int. Journal of Nanomedicine, 2015
- Bioavailability, distribution and clearance of tracheally-instilled and gavaged uncoated or silica-coated zinc oxide nanoparticles — Particle and Fibre Toxicology, 2014
- Engineering safer-by-design silica-coated ZnO nanorods with reduced DNA damage potential — Environmental Science: Nano, 2014
TEACHING & MENTORSHIP
I approach teaching as a multimodal practice: part science, part story, part design. Whether in a classroom, clinic, or community space, I create frameworks for people to understand and share their experiences of health.
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NYU Steinhardt | ART-2188
Arts In Sickness and In Health: Art, Writing, and Performance as Counter-Gazes to Medicine and Public HealthAmerican Art Therapy Association (AATA)
Conference Panel: Kintsugi as a Framework for Graduate Medical EducationAATA Conference Workshop: Interplay between sensuality, sexuality & creative self-expression
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What’s Going on With My Lungs? educational patient video
LungCheck educational lung cancer screening resource for patients and clinicians
COMMUNITY OUTREACH
Community care extends beyond the clinic. I work with neighborhood groups, patient advocates, and cultural organizations — translating clinical knowledge into accessible forms, documenting community advocacy through film, and supporting access to the arts as care in its own right. A rally outside a hospital and a young artist's first night at the Tonys belong to the same practice.
Documenting the Save Beth Israel Coalition
Broadway For All at the Tony Awards
VISUAL PRACTICE
Through photography, film, costume, and autofictional narrative, I examine how bodies are seen, cloaked, and interpreted across medical contexts and everyday life.
My work often attends to bodily transition, intimacy, ritual, decay, and the fragile ways we inhabit changing selves.
Split Victory, 2019.
Anticoagulate, 2021.
Pneumoperitoneum Reaper, 2018. Exhibited at CICA Museum, South Korea.
Self-portrait, 2019.
Lateral, 2019. Exhibited at CICA Museum, South Korea.
Soft Skin, 2021.
Hypercoagulable, 2021.
Paris Catacombs Polaroid Dress, 2021.
Swan Lake, 2021.
Radiant Firebird, 2022.
Ashen Firebird, 2022.
Patient Perspective, 2021. Published in The Intima, 2021.
EXPERIMENTAL FILM
Bleeding Poet, Film Star (2020)
CICA Museum Exhibit (South Korea, 2021)
Seppuku (2021)
Film and Video Poetry Society Symposium (LA, 2024)
Corpus Piggy (2022)
First Hermetic International Film Festival (Venice, 2022)
Tokyo International Short Film Festival (Tokyo, 2023)
