I’ll even stage one if needed.

A racing gurney and looks of concern make me happy

I’ve been fortunate to have done most of my healthcare photography at major medical institutions. Mostly at University of California, Los Angeles and recently at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. These are major trauma and research centers. The places you want to go when you have a major health issue like a heart attack.

An EKG and exam in the emergency room

This series was shot to illustrate an integrated team approach to handling a heart attack from the arrival and evaluation in the ER and the examination and potential intervention in the angiogram suite.

Opening a blocked blood vessel in the angiogram suite

Even though this case was a simulated heart attack I always enjoy the challenge of making the cases look realistic. They need to pass “the hallway test” of colleagues who will see the photos when this “Report to the Community 2010″ is printed.

As fun as it is for me to shoot these emergent situations. An often overlooked part of healthcare is preventing problems in the first place. This could be teaching healthy eating practices in an elementary school.

Eating fruit and yogurt at a nutrition lesson

Or having a trusted relationship with your primary care doctor.

Personal interaction builds a bond of trust between patient and doctor

In real life, patient areas don’t have that refined TV look that you find on “House“, nor are research labs as stylish as they are on “Bones” and the “CSI” shows.

The first challenge is always to understand what’s going on in the lab and determine how to communicate that unique story. In this case the researcher is doing an advanced DNA screening of an individual patient to calculate the respond to an expensive chemotherapy medication. This is an early stage of personalized medicine.

DNA screening to match effective treatment for a chemotherapy drug

Having cancer is about more than how your DNA reacts to treatment, it’s also about how you deal with the emotional aspect of the disease.

A cancer survivor volunteers to hear patient's concerns

Prevention, bonding, research and emotional health are important part of care. I love showing it all.

But that still doesn’t beat sending a trauma team racing down the hall.

Trauma team racing down a hallway

All these photos were taken for Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and were published in their “Report to the Community 2010“. A great interactive version of the report was created by the Doyle/Logan Company as well.

Mark Harmel

harmelphoto.com

Long on Twitter:

@HarmelPhoto

@MarkHarmel

Now on Facebook

The New York Times today has a business story on the Tech Companies Push to Digitize Patients’ Records. It’s a major undertaking that may be solved with major investments by big corporations and government stimulus money.

Converting existing paper records is an issue

Readers of my oncology office post saw a real-life example of the paper challenge.

Photo rep/consultant Tony Luna recently wrote about my portfolio in his column on photo.net titled “The Six Elements of an Effective Presentation“. In the feature Tony focuses on the specific topic of a photography portfolio, but his general thesis can apply to any type of artist – as well as any marketing presentation.

In my case (used to illustrate element #4) he focuses on the challenge of presenting my diverse body of work. These could have be broken down in multiple portfolios, but instead I decided with my consultant/designer Deanne Delbridge to blend in a number of different styles that all speak to the message of a healthy lifestyle.

Portfolio designed as a doctor's black bag

By creating the overall theme we can present portraits or a senior couple in front of their house and a portrait of a surgeon conducting a liver transplant. A travel photo of women practicing Qigong in downtown Hanoi fits in with a Chinese researcher in an islet cell lab. The biggest stretch was blending in a series of my fine-art oriented photos into the book. They present the message that I’m an artist as well a visual story-teller and introduce the idea of using these photos to illustrate conceptual messages. (A separate Visual Concepts portfolio now expands on this message.)

Neuro-oncologist Dr. Daniela Bota - UC Irvine Medical Center

The healthcare portfolio allows me to have a book that targets a specific segment of the market that highlights the expertise I developed over the years. This also allows me to have a body of work that speaks directly to a client’s market. I have a healthcare book that I present to a healthcare client.

Looking to rejuvenate your career? Consider signing up for one of Tony Luna’s classes.

Mark Harmel

harmelphoto.com

An update: in November, 2008 Andrew’s book was chosen as a winner in the “photography: Instructional/How-To” category of The National Best Books 2008 Awards, sponsored by USA Book News.My photos have appeared in a number of books recently. The latest is a feature about my portfolio and promo creations in Andrew Darlow’s “301 Inkjet Tip and Techniques”
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In the book Andrew details the design and building process of two portfolios that I did with with the help of designer Michael Standlee (also know as “PhotoshopDude”), book artist Tania Baban and poet Jim Natal. The first book we created was for the collection of my personal work that I call Sightings. For this we chose the look of a well worn travel journal complete with a leather string tie.

We then continued on to create a healthcare portfolio that is modeled after and old family doctor’s house call black bag.

This is the book that has been recently updated with the help of consultant Deanne Delbridge. My current mission is to get this book out into the healthcare world. Don’t be surprised if I call you later today for an appointment.

Mark Harmel
harmelphoto.com