Episode 10.3: Creative professor teaches medicine with Pokémon and AI
How whimsical creatures, cinematic storytelling and AI-powered tools are transforming medical education
BY Leigh Cooper and Danae Lenz
Photo by Visual Productions and provided by Tyler Bland
October 13, 2025
Meet Tyler Bland, clinical assistant professor in the School of Health and Medical Professions. Medical students struggle to learn and retain the fire hose of information they need to become doctors. Bland explains how he is using ingenuity, imagination and AI to create Pokémon-esque monsters and medically-themed movies to help his students learn.
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In school, did you ever use any learning tricks to memorize information?
Bland reimages medical education through creativity, gamification and technology. He is tackling one of medical training’s biggest challenges: the overwhelming volume of information students must master. Bland introduces Medimon, a Pokémon-inspired learning tool where whimsical creatures represent cells, organs and diseases. Each Medimon evolves through stages and appears in healthy or diseased forms, making complex biomedical concepts more memorable. Bland has already brought Medimon artwork into the classroom, using its 188 characters across 31 families to energize lectures and help students visualize and retain key concepts.
Beyond Medimon, Bland transforms clinical case studies into immersive storytelling experiences. He designs fake movies “starring” celebrities who have real-world experience with the disease being studied, complete with AI-generated narration and visuals. Notable examples of these bedazzled “case studies” include “Shattered Slippers,” featuring Selena Gomez as a lupus patient, and a malaria short film styled after “Alien.” This episode highlights how blending imagination, AI tools and playful design can make medical education engaging, interactive and effective — helping students navigate the fire hose of information one creature, one story and one creative case at a time.
Music
“Young Republicans” by Steve Combs via freemusicarchive.org, not modified.
“Reach” by Sam Cardon via Amphibious Zoo.
Chapters
(0:00) Have you used mnemnic devices
(2:36) Getting to know Tyler Bland
(3:43) Medical education challenges
(7:42) Introducing Medimon
(13:01) Medimon video games
(15:45) Case studies become AI movies with Hollywood stars
(17:45) “Shattered Slippers” with Selena Gomez
(21:48) Malaria through “Alien”
(25:28) Are the students learning better?
(28:34) Final thoughts