Friday, May 14, 2010

Health, social care and personal map making

Vermeeer painting


There have been two series running on BBC 4 in the UK over recent months and currently with a cartographic and historical focus:

see - The Beauty of Maps

This Vermeer - The Art of Painting - was featured in one programme and reveals the power and status of maps as Wikipedia also explains.

It is natural to see the health career model as a map, but this map is not just the preserve of the wealthy. Hodges' model can be used universally by all - a common framework.


Use of the term map and its synonyms is in turn common in medicine in many forms:


The above sites reveal how maps, charts and atlases relate the individual, geography and health.

In addition to its geographic connotation projection also has a psychological meaning. Hodges' model provides a substrate* on which to project personalised, national and global health.

An individual; a people; a nation: for each a journey .... and for each a map ....

Image source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Art_of_Painting_%28Vermeer%29


* You have to love that floor ;-)