Faces Redefining the Art of Medical Education

Rick Guidotti, an award-winning former fashion photographer, has spent the past fifteen years working internationally with advocacy organizations/non-governmental organizations, medical schools, universities and other educational institutions to effect a sea-change in societal attitudes towards individuals living with genetic difference.

Rick is the founder and director of Positive Exposure, an innovative arts, education and advocacy organization, working with individuals living with genetic, physical, cognitive and behavioral difference. Positive Exposure utilizes the visual arts to significantly impact the fields of genetics, mental health and human rights.

He recently spoke at the Nisonger Center and then at the OSU Wexner Medical Center and will be returning in December 2013 to speak at Nationwide Children’s Hospital as well. From a grant through Nisonger, he has an exhibit at COSI and in Prior Health Science Library. One of his newest projects is Faces Redefining the Art of Medical Education (FRAME) working with medical/undergraduate students and advocacy groups to improve the images that students are taught through to be more humanizing and catching not just the features but the spirit of person being photographed.

Rick is willing to work with one to two Ohio State Medical Students over the summer of 2014 traveling to patient advocacy meetings to start a project specific to those organizations. Working with the genetics staff at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and the OSU Wexner Medical Center, we will develop the students’ project including learning about the disorder, working with Rick at the organization’s national meeting and then creating a finished work to improve education of the disorder. The project may also use the extensive 40+ years archives available at Nationwide Children’s for those images that might be suitable. Students are then expected to present their work to others including national conferences.

Contact Information:

Murugu Manickam, MD

Assistant Professor of Pediatrics/Internal Medicine

Division of Molecular and Human Genetics