Today on the Medicine X blog, writer Julia James tells the empowering story of how Regina Holliday, a widow and mother of two, is challenging the health-care system through art. James writes:
Three years ago, Regina was happy creating neighborhood public murals, of children reading books, and dinosaurs, and movie stars.
Today she is a familiar presence as a patient-rights advocate and artist. She speaks nationally--about pursuing new health systems, better design and better ways of treating people--and creates on-site fine-art canvases, taking threads of conversation and weaving them together into their visual equivalent.
She can also be found on the street, where she sets up shop, often in front of medical providers, with the intention of disturbing passersby--trying to get them to change their expectations as patients and to become engaged in their own health.
And she continues to create pieces for her walking gallery, a collection of 107 (and counting) jackets that capture the causes of the patients who wear them.
The Medicine X team is working with Regina Holliday to develop art for the 2012 conference, which will take place on Sept. 28-30.
Previously: Founder of Diabetes Mine discusses the power of patient communities, ePatient discusses how web-savvy patients are changing the practice of medicine and Stanford Medicine X advisory board announced
