A Shining Light in the Darkness

Kevin Adomayakpor stood beside me as I painted at mHealth 2011 in Washington DC.  He had been a speaker the day before and Christine Kraft had heard his speech: The Intersection of Mobile Health and Public Health – Towards Greater Understanding and Collaboration. Christine was so impressed that she brought him over to my easel after his performance. He told me about the work he was doing with OneWorld’s “Learning about Living Project.” He was helping youths in Senegal to be empowered in their sexual health using the tools of mobile technology.  Questions that could not be easily asked to the adults could be answered in a non-judgmental way by the computer or cell phone.

Kevin was far from his home of Senegal. He could not just run home and hand me a spare jacket in order to join the gallery. He handed me his other jacket and told me about his journey. He told me quite a bit about the youth of Senegal.  He told me about the HIV rate and the misinformation that many young people learn from their peers.  He told about the hope for a better future through mobile technology.

I painted this for Kevin: “A Light Shining in the Darkness.”

In this painting, a young woman looks up with uncertainty within a darkened room. She is preparing to text a personal question. Her face is filled with worry. It is hard to talk about this subject and if it were not for a service like  “Learning about Living Project” she would have nowhere to turn.  

The room is darkened, but there is one light above and to the right of the young woman.  People might think it is a window. But this is a silhouette of a phone that shines as brightly as a sun. It can light her path.  It can give her hope.

Like many people today, my smart phone has become a central part of my life.  It is my alarm clock, my calendar, my camera, my calculator and it even lights my path at night. But imagine what the phone is to this young girl from Senegal.

It is the difference between life and death. 

This was the last jacket I painted at mHealth 2011. I could think of no better way to end the day. This is what mobile health is all about.

Time to Care

When I was a little girl I would stare for hours at the wooden clock upon the wall.  I found it quite intriguing.  The clock was a little house with a bird that would dip its beak outside its window and cuckoo upon the hour.  A little wooden boy and a little wooden girl would meet in front of their doors and share a kiss and then depart. The clock seemed magical and full of hope.  The sun would always rise, the birds would always tweet and the girl and boy would always kiss.

But life is not like wood-work clocks with metal pinecone counterweights.  Life is unpredictable and sometimes you wake up to find the time piece is still ticking but the boy is lost forever. 

And that is how Chiara Bell found me, a lonely widow with a broken heart that refused to stop ticking. She found me with a tweet, asking for a jacket painting like the paintings Jen McCabe wore. I painted her “Caregiver’s Clock.” I painted soul crushing pain upon her back.  Here was a clock with no hands to sooth you.

Time passed and Chiara tweeted.  I saw her walk away from her first company in order to build a second.  She told me the new company would be called Careticker.  She wanted to create a company that would make it easier for patients to plan discharge transitions and would allow active communication between the care team and approved family members via text messaging. She asked me to paint once again and I was inspired by the name of her new concept.  I asked her, “What do you know about the origin of the ticker tape machine?”

The ticker tape machine was the first digital electronic communication technology to be used in the home. It utilized paper and telegraph lines to print out stock quotes, and like an erratic clock, it ticked; hence, the name ticker tape.  It revolutionized trading, for suddenly, one did not need to be on the trading floor to make decisions in a close to real-time fashion.

So I painted this canvas for Chiara.  In the background, spool upon spool of ticker tape cascades.  To the far left, a family vignette includes a wealthy mother, loving daughter and family nurse as they quietly read the stock quotes spooling amongst them.  To the far right, a modern mother rests in the comfort of her home with her little son beside her.  She is reading a text from the hospital as a nurse responds via Careticker.  A large image of a smart phone unites the two scenes with streaming texts on the care condition of the patient.

A few months later Chiara came to DC to attend the mHealth Summit.  I asked her if I could share her booth space.  Chiara was presenting in the start-up pavilion and Greg R. Itzenson from our host StartUp Health, offered me my own space beside Chiara.  So that is how I came to represent and the Walking Gallery and paint on site at the m-Health Summit.

Over three days I painted five jackets.  One of the jackets was for Chiara Bell.  It is called Careticker and it is a happy jacket.  Here the clock of my childhood is transformed.  The background roils with spool upon spool of tape.  To the left is the red-hued past filled with a lack of data access, to the right is a blue serene future. 

Centered is the clock.  Its pendulum swings back and forth, as we totter to the future while lapsing into the past.  The classic cuckoo door is wide open and the bird has been replaced with a triumphant patient.  Center on the clock face is a smart phone.  Here is communication in real-time. Here is a new world of care.

So Chira Bell has two jacket paintings focused on time: the pain of time that has stopped and the joyous flight of time when we are with our loves.  That is just and that is right.  For I know the origin of the word “clock” it hails from the Celtic “clagen” meaning “bell.”  If there is anyone I would trust to ring the bell, either in peals of rejoicing or tolls of warning, it is Chiara Bell.    

Painting the mHealth Summit

Yesterday I had the privilege to paint at the mHealth Summit in Washington, DC.  I was in booth 135-6 in the Start-up Pavilion hosted by StartUp Health.  I came to the conference because Chiara Bell was showing her new product: CareTicker and asked me to attend.  I responded by begging to have space in her booth to paint jackets for The Walking Gallery.  She asked Gregory R. Itzenson if we could share the booth.  Gregory responded back there was still time to reserve my own space.  Due to the diligent work of both Chiara and Gregory, I had a booth in time for the show.

Sadly, this did mean I would miss IHI in Florida this year, but I was sure the many wonderful patient advocates that attended IHI would represent the patient view.  I knew I would be one of the few patient advocates attending Mobile Health.  I also was so glad to hear The Walking Gallery would be represented in both places.  Mary Ellen Mannix would wear her jacket “Never Enough” and Dale Ann Micalizzi would wear her new jacket “Tales Two of Justins.”  It was great to represent both The Walking Gallery and the launch of the new healthcare/patient speaker portal: SpeakerLink.Org.

So at 11:00 am in the far corner of the exhibition hall I painted on the jacket of Robert  J. Filley.  He is an artist member of The Walking Gallery who has painted three jackets and is also the husband of Anita Samarth the co-founder of Clinovations.  He asked me to paint the jacket he would wear.  So I painted the Mobile Health Summit on his back.

This is Bob’s jacket: “mHealth.”

In this painting the logo image of the “m” becomes the center of a clock face.



From the “m” a Wi-Fi signal emanates and grows larger forming into birds.  These are birds of peace and freedom.  For this is the promise of mobile health wherever you are mobile health can help you, be it in an African savannah or a hospital bed.   These birds fly above a curtain created from the colors of mHealth conference.  Behind this curtain two figures stare at the viewer. 

These are the patients.

Several people spoke to me while I was painting.  They asked, “What purpose could art serve at a technology conference?”  Well, art is just tool as tech is just a tool.   They are tools to communicate with patients.  We must never forget all of this exists to help patients have a better health experience.

Finally to the far left and on lower part of the painting, there are clock hands.  It is three o’clock.  It is three o’clock for a few reasons.   One reason is hospitals often have early morning blood draws or vitals checks, which is great for the hospital system but not so good for a sick patient who needs rest.  It is also 3:00pm for moment in a conference day when exhibitors are so very tired, yet they still stand on aching feet and smile as they answer questions.

And it is three o’clock because at 2:55 pm Anita Samarth found my booth and I explained the vision of this jacket.  I am so glad her wonderful husband will get to wear it, but until then it will hang in the offices of Clinovations telling one and all about the communication power of Mobile Health.