Submission Medium: video

Art + Medicine | Speaking of Race

This one hour PBS broadcast features voices of many physicians of color at the University of Minnesota. Each physician talks about instances of race impacting their practice as well as the care that patients of color receive. It begins discussion of why race is important to talk about in health care and ends on each provider's favorite aspect of teaching and medicine.

Difficult Choices

In this 2-minute video from the Youtube channel Story Center, a mother describes the discrimination that she faced for expressing breast milk at work. The narrator draws attention to the discrimination she and many other people who breastfeed faced, and the effect that her decision to breastfeed had on her career--although she successfully pursued a complaint that resulted in compensation and promises to change policy, she ultimately lost her job. "Difficult Choices" provides a succinct example of workplace discrimination against mothers, the legal remedies available, and their limitations. It could prompt discussion about the use of personal stories for advocacy.

A Strange Relativity: Altered Time for Surgeon-Turned-Patient

This is an 8 minute video made by Stanford neurosurgen and author Paul Kalanithi before his death. He reflects on the experience of time--as a physician, seeing patients and monitoring time and now, as a person with cancer and the parent of a baby. The video could be used in a course in which Kalanthi's book is assigned, to give students an opportunity to hear his reflections in his own voice and to see images of him with his family. It is also an example of the larger issue of what physicians notice about medical practice when they become a patient themselves.

To understand autism, don’t look away

Carina Morillo shares her story as the mother of a son with autism through a TedTalk. The video is in Spanish with English subtitles; a transcript in English and Spanish is available as well. Morillo's 15 year old son, Ivan, was diagnosed when he was two and a half and at that time, his parents did not have access to internet information or expert advice about autism. Morillo describes how she learned to connect with her son through activities he enjoyed and how she learned to appreciate and build upon his strengths, such as a strong visual memory, which became a basis for his communication through images. She describes support from a local grocer who gave her son a job that utilizes his passion for organizing items. Her message is that one does not need to be an expert to be curious and inclusive. Eye contact is a part of the story and a metaphor for inclusion; some autistics might point out that insisting on eye contact can be distracting, even painful. However, the larger point of the story emphasizes valuing autistic abilities and working with their interests to create connection. This story can prompt a discussion that may challenge stereotypes about autism and expert systems of medicalization and treatment.

Patients as Teachers Project

The Patients as Teachers program pairs two first year medical students with a patient to learn more about how illness affects a patient's whole life. Students visit patients in their homes or other locations and learn about the impact of illness, patient coping and resilience, and positive and negative interactions with the health care system. The website has an archive of videos students have created about patient experience. For example, a video from 2020 interviews Jason Barup about his experience with clear cell renal carcinoma and also includes an interview with psychologist Michael Hayes, who worked with Barup through his diagnosis and treatment. The storyline puts Barup's illness experience in the broader context of his identify as a runner. The videos could be used to provide examples of patient narratives (they cover a range of medical conditions). They can also prompt reflection on patient-provider communication and interactions with health care systems.

Patient & Family Storytelling: Real People. Real Experiences. Real Impact.

This Alberta Health Services website lists 107 videos from patients and their families. There is a brief description of each video (e.g., the health condition, who tells the story, what larger issue or point the story illustrates). It is possible to search the collection (e.g., for stories related to "cancer"). Some examples of health narratives on this website include: Rose’s Story: Joy and Grief, a look into how healthcare providers can help us navigate tragedy and foster healing. Rose explores the impact and experience of the stillbirth of her son and daughter. (The website includes a content warning.) B’s Story: Learning to B myself, a story about the challenges of occupational stress, gender identity, mental health, and transgender advocacy from a rural context. Jeraldine’s Story: There is Hope, a story of the experiences of an Indigenous woman who experiences the ramifications of intergenerational trauma. This story advocated for Canada to provide culturally appropriate healthcare to indigenous populations. Although produced by a health care system, these videos give more voice to patients and family members than is often the case with these kinds of collections. They are well-produced and many address the experiences of historically under-served and marginalized populations.

Look Now Project: Survivor Stories

This digital humanities project includes stories and images of breast cancer survivors. Project creator Tula Goenka (a breast cancer survivor) and her collaborators seek to "break down the barriers between a survivor's public persona and their private struggles with the disease, and to put a face on breast cancer in our local community." The first installation in 2018 included interactive text, graphics, mirrors, and an experimental silent film accompanying 25 participants' clothed photographic portraits and images of bare chests, and 19 who chose to remain anonymous except for their bare chest close-ups. In 2019, Goenka and her collaborators created TitBits: Breast Cancer Stories, a documentary theater performance. The multi-media website includes media coverage of Look Now and TitBits, oral histories, images of bare chests after lumpectomy or mastectomy, and resources on breast cancer. I have used Anju's story ("Life Happens Keep Smiling") from this website in a Narrative Scribe Training workshop for college students, medical students, and health care professionals. After viewing the video together, we discussed what may be left out of a transcript and the importance of listening closely not only to what is said, but also how it is said, what is not said, and how our own experiences and identities shape what we hear.

Cigarettes

Juice WRLD (Jarad Higgins) was a rapper who was open about his struggles with addiction, depression and anxiety. He died of a drug overdose in 2019. Many of his music videos can be read as illness narratives. This one has an ultimately upbeat message, as the protagonist goes to AA and gets sober. It begins with a "Text this number for confidential help" message onscreen. This could work in any music/popular media class to talk about health narratives or could be part of an assignment to build a play list around a topic with annotations.

Aftershock

This documentary tells the stories of two Black women who died during or after childbirth, through interviews with their family members. The film examines the higher rates of infant mortality in the US, and especially for Black women, who are 3 to 4 times more likely to die from childbirth-related reasons than White women. The film shows how family members became activists for maternal health care. The award-winning film premiered at Sundance in 2022 and is (at the time of this writing) available on Hulu. It could be used to show how narratives can bring statistics to life, as well as the power of narrative for social change.