Photovoice

Fourth-year U-M Medical School students Edmond Baker, David Corteville, Karen Fauman, Njeri Thande and James Yu were the first to participate in a new and unique elective course offered by the school in 2003. The course, "Using Photovoice to Explore Professional Values, Social Responsibility, and Health Policy Issues," challenged students to use photography to communicate the significance of issues they felt needed attention. Provided with digital cameras, the students documented subjects related to their chosen topics, which ranged from nursing shortages to the struggles of the uninsured, and presented the images and accompanying information to policy makers — and to faculty and members of the media on January 28 of this year.

Fauman's presentation, "Hospitals and Nutrition: The Mixed Messages We Send," included images of vending machines which blanket the U-M Hospital and some less-than-healthy options offered in the hospital cafeteria. Most striking of all, Fauman presented juxtaposed images of the sign for Wendy's (located in the hospital) and the construction site for the new U-M Cardiovascular Center (visible from a window just down the hall from the fast food counter). She used this example of "the cloggers and the un-cloggers" to illustrate the conflicting nutritional messages she believes are experienced by patients and staff. Healthy alternatives were represented by fresh vegetable displays from a local market.

-MF

Find out more about the Photovoice concept and other Photovoice projects at www.photovoice.com