The Surgical Innovations Lab at the UMKC 医学院, led by Gary Sutkin, M.D., was formed in 2016 to better understand how patient safety may be threatened in the operating room and how to make surgery safer. It approaches this mission with an inter-disciplinary team through a multitude of methodologies, 包括生物医学工程, 人种学，现在是艺术.
苏特金团队的成员之一是玛格丽特·布罗姆梅尔西克博士.D., associate research professor in the 护理与健康研究学院 and the 医学院. 在一起, they are collaborating on an art and medicine project called Visual Excavation: Reconstructing Scientific Data into Visual Artifacts.
It was designed to extend the lab’s research data through visualization in the form of artist books. Brommelsiek, 谁也是一个实践艺术家, developed the images through mining data contained in the lab’s research protocols relating to quality and safety in the operating room, team communication and interprofessional surgical team interactions.
The importance of the artwork is being recognized by the artistic community as a whole. Brommelsiek and Sutkin have created five books consisting of the pieces accompanied with poems written by Sutkin and Brommelsiek. Those books are now included in the library of the National Museum of Women in Art in Washington, D.C. The institution is the only major museum in the world solely dedicated to championing women through the arts. 图书馆的藏书包括1,000 unique books and limited editions created by women artists in a variety of formats.
“It’s really an honor to be included in their collection and how artists and art can engage in science,布罗姆梅尔西克说. “希望, these books will inspire other future artists to collaborate in fields outside of the arts.”
通过超越图表和图形, Brommelsiek’s art provides a visual narrative documenting the lived experiences of the researchers. 进行民族志研究, her research examines the dynamics within the operating room environment, using a humanities-informed lens and identifying parallels between medicine and art. 她的成品, 她说哪个是抽象的, use collage as the primary medium to create an essence of the experiences of research processes.
“Margaret’s art and background have really opened up a window in my mind where I view my research differently and even surgery itself,苏特金说, who also serves as associate dean of women’s health at the 医学院.
According to Sutkin, this is the lab’s first foray into true art incorporation. “We’ve been making theoretical models and try to make them visual, 但这是我们的新方向.”
Much of Sutkin’s research focuses on the use of a trocar, an intimidating surgical instrument used during bladder surgeries where the wrong amount of pressure can lead to dire consequences in female patients. These procedures often require working without visual cues. 通过实验室, Sutkin has been able to create a surgical model that mirrors this procedure by mapping pressure used during trocar insertion. An important part of this research was having access to a cadaver.
“我想真正捕捉到Dr. Sutkin’s visceral experience of the cadaver,布罗姆梅尔西克说. “纹理, 外科医生的手法至关重要, 还有乐器本身, 甚至是手术中使用的网状物. It’s not literal, but the essence is captured in the imagery.”
This project took shape when they received funding through the KU Medical Center Frontiers Trailblazer Awards. The program provides financial support to assist with targeted research in a variety of areas of 卫生保健.
We thought it would be interesting to take three aspects of our research that had differing perspectives and extend the research data to a visual form,布罗姆梅尔西克说. “How could we visually see the output of the research process and find meaning through a visual lens of expression?”
The backbone of their creative process is conversations around science, but also other fields of shared interest including art, 哲学, 文学, 电影和, 当然, 卫生保健. It is through this ongoing dialogue that several research protocols have emerged.
“We’ll be discussing some of the science in our research but we’ll also touch on film, visual art or novels that have a relationship to what we’re doing,布罗姆梅尔西克说. “It all feeds into our creative process and how our research is developed.”