On June 17th 2009, Regina Holliday’s husband, Fred, lost his battle with kidney cancer, dying peacefully at home surrounded by his family. However, Regina’s fight for patients’ rights was only beginning.
 
Despite working five jobs between them, Fred and Regina couldn’t afford health insurance. By the time Fred Holliday was hired as an assistant professor of literature and performing arts at American University – a job that included family health benefits – it was too late. On March 27, 2009, Fred was diagnosed with Stage 4 kidney cancer.
 
Artists are no strangers to social change. As an accomplished artist, Regina Holliday grew up in a home where Picasso’s “ Guernica” hung in the kitchen. She channeled her fury and frustration with a broken healthcare delivery system into her art.

After Fred died, Regina picked up her brushes. She constructed “73 cents”, a 20-foot high mural located at 5001 Connecticut Avenue in Washington, DC, depicts Fred on his deathbed, clutching a note that reads, “Go after them, Regina. Love, Fred.” The couple’s two sons appear in the painting, as well as images of distracted healthcare personnel and nods to “Guernica". The mural is dense with symbolism and emotion.

Regina’s mural movingly depicts the horrors she and her husband faced once they were caught up in the medical system, which included the following:
• Waiting six agonizing hours to get pain medication while admissions paperwork was processed.
• Staff injuring Fred, who were unaware of his cancer's progression.
• Paying 73 cents a page for copies of Fred’s medical record – a 100 page document
• Waiting over 24 hours for essential information about the care he needed.

While waiting for the medical record, with her husband in pain, Regina cobbled together a medical record herself, assisted by nurses. There was a computer in the room, but patients' families were not allowed to use it. This forced Regina to leave her ailing husband at night, drive home and use her own computer to research his condition.

Additionally, Regina painted a mural titled “Medical Facts,” a data visualization she wished Fred's doctors had seen when treating him. The mural depicted a synthesized visualization of Fred's medical history and current status, which would have efficiently informed his doctors of his condition, resulting in better medical care.

Much like Nutritional Facts, Regina wanted "Medical Facts" to highlight the need for a standard way of communicating essential health information, assisting with data consumption and accuracy. Data visualization in healthcare presents huge opportunities for improving information presentation and care.

Regina Holliday has expanded her activism by blogging, attending healthcare conferences, and appeared with Senate leaders at a news conference to push the envelope of health data access and patient rights forward.

I would like to end with Regina’s own words:
“The modern medical system has many problems that need to be addressed. There are those who wish to polarize this debate, and so doing would condemn us all. For the end will not elude us, and in the end we are all patients.”

Check out Regina’s blog:
http://reginaholliday.blogspot.com/
Read More about “73 Cents”:
http://reginaholliday.blogspot.com/2009/09/dark-willow-and-73-cents.html
Read the Article “Faulty Construction”: A review of the issues associated with current EHR technology:
http://www.fortherecordmag.com/archives/080210p10.shtml