By Patricia Flatley Brennan, Director, Project HealthDesign.
Mosaics are an art form in which images are created by juxtaposing small bits of stone or colored glass in alignment. Viewed from too close a perspective, one sees only bits of color separated by grout. Move back and a beautiful image emerges. Every single stone or piece of colored glass plays in important role in creating the image.
Mosaics provide a useful metaphor for characterizing the work of Project HealthDesign as seen through the eyes of our bloggers. Nine months into this round of Project HealthDesign seems to be the right distance to gaze back at the mosaic of our blog –the image created by the 54 posts from our grantees, advisory committee members, legal and technical consultants, students and program office staff is exciting and promising.
Most people read blogs sequentially, following a line of reasoning initiated by one person and developing over time. We at Project HealthDesign took a different path to blogging, one that more aptly captures the myriad visions, experiences, and technologies that now make up the ecosystem of our program. Some of the postings provide an update on the status of a project; others call out for help with a particular technical issue. Still others represent the impulsive musing of the NPO director (me!) on the state of patient-facing HIT - where it is, where I’d like it to be, and how to get there. Our approach challenges the reader to look at each post not as an isolated but beautiful piece of glass, but as a part of an emerging larger whole image.
Our blog presents Project HealthDesign as a mosaic of experiences, insights, and opinions about PHRs, ODLs, technology and tools – there may be other, more efficient ways to understand PHRs, but certainly there is none more enjoyable.
Mosaics are an art form in which images are created by juxtaposing small bits of stone or colored glass in alignment. Viewed from too close a perspective, one sees only bits of color separated by grout. Move back and a beautiful image emerges. Every single stone or piece of colored glass plays in important role in creating the image.
Mosaics provide a useful metaphor for characterizing the work of Project HealthDesign as seen through the eyes of our bloggers. Nine months into this round of Project HealthDesign seems to be the right distance to gaze back at the mosaic of our blog –the image created by the 54 posts from our grantees, advisory committee members, legal and technical consultants, students and program office staff is exciting and promising.
Most people read blogs sequentially, following a line of reasoning initiated by one person and developing over time. We at Project HealthDesign took a different path to blogging, one that more aptly captures the myriad visions, experiences, and technologies that now make up the ecosystem of our program. Some of the postings provide an update on the status of a project; others call out for help with a particular technical issue. Still others represent the impulsive musing of the NPO director (me!) on the state of patient-facing HIT - where it is, where I’d like it to be, and how to get there. Our approach challenges the reader to look at each post not as an isolated but beautiful piece of glass, but as a part of an emerging larger whole image.
Our blog presents Project HealthDesign as a mosaic of experiences, insights, and opinions about PHRs, ODLs, technology and tools – there may be other, more efficient ways to understand PHRs, but certainly there is none more enjoyable.
