'Reclaiming Agency: AI and the power of narrative medicine' is a transdisciplinary project in which electronic health record (EHR) research and service user perspective are brought together to explore AI in mental healthcare and treatment.
The wealth of information available in EHRs is typically only communicated through data either to clinicians or researchers who need answers to particular questions. The method of extracting the information from EHRs using AI (particularly natural language processing (NLP)) can be challenging and daunting and does not take account of the patient narrative.
Through a series of multimedia creations, the project will put the embodied service user-experience centre-stage in the conversation around AI in mental healthcare by twisting the perspective and viewing possibilities and solutions rather than problems.
The project will challenge the notion of ownership and accuracy in how information is processed and how curatorial agency is assigned to the individual. Deconstructing, reconstructing, dealing with difficult issues and continuing the story sit at the heart of the patient journey, as well as the AI processes to decisively and jointly give agency to the patient through the use of narrative medicine.
Dr Anna Kolliakou is a mental-health researcher at King's College London. In her current role as Clinical Informatics Interface and Network Lead, Anna manages the CRIS Natural Language Processing (NLP) Service and supports the extension and development of internal and external collaborations for the CRIS team and wider BRC informatics initiatives. Anna was also the King's Culture Knowledge Exchange Associate at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience. Over a 5-year period in this role, she enabled the shaping and delivery of new collaborative projects between academics and cultural sector partners including the Arts in Mind Festival.
An artist, maker, curator and researcher, with lived experience of mental illness, Sarah Carpenter advocates for mental wellbeing, working with organisations such as Bethlem Gallery, Shape Arts, Outside In and Artistic UK. Sarah likens her creative process to cognitive behavioural therapy: deconstructing, reconstructing and recycling images/ideas to better understand, rebuild and reimagine them. Several of her artworks can be found in the Wellcome Collection and she has been published in the Psychologist, the British Medical Journal and the Lancet Journal of Psychiatry.
Blog written by the project team
July 2021
External Project website & Twitter
In the audio below, artist Sarah Carpenter talks about the project
Sarah’s Creative responses to the project
Paper making - Deconstructing and reconstructing my records.
Creating a fresh blank page ready to tell my own story in my own way.
Using text - At its core, the alphabet is a series of symbols. Breaking down fonts into their essence - a series of shapes / forms. Lifting text off of the page, turning letters into sculpture. Is it text, or art or both? Reframing meaning of language by changing the context.
In the video below, fellow artist Sue Morgan gives us her thoughts on the project, specifically the idea of recording the patient narrative in a clinical setting. See more of Sue’s work here.