Meet Slippy, the mascot for the #TMM symposium .

We asked Malcolm Willett, the legendary BMJ cartoonist and illustrator, to tell the story behind the creation of this funny-looking snake:

“The ancient symbol of medicine is the snake wrapped around the staff or rod of Asclepius, a Greek god associated with healing and medicine. When I was asked to create a symbol or mascot for the Too Much Medicine symposium, one of the ideas that came to mind was of an overweight snake, representing medicine, curled around the famous rod. To emphasise this I added the word MEDICINE to his bloated abdomen and even had the rod breaking under his weight, and striking him senseless on the head! A bit over the top maybe, but thus was born our mascot, who shall be called ‘Slippy Asclepy’, or ‘Slippy’ for short.”