It can be easy to separate different organ systems from each other and to fail to zoom out and see the full picture of the body as a whole. In practice, however, all parts of the body interact together to form the patient’s experiences and health, and information about the complex interacting systems of the body often all come together to help reach a diagnosis. As part of our training around consultations, we attempt to find other symptoms which may give clues to what issues the patient is experiencing. Interactions with patients during my time on the wards have contributed to this interconnected view of the body, as I have met patients whose symptoms seem unrelated to their underlying medical condition and others who have many, seemingly unconnected, symptoms which have added together to form the underlying diagnosis.

In creating this piece, I was interested in exploring the connections between the different organ systems and I knew I wanted to work with textiles as a medium. I think that the three- dimensional nature of this media provides a unique impact which I wanted to harness as part of my project. After considering other forms of textiles, I decided to focus on embroidery because I wanted to use the threads which created the organs to connect everything together. This provided a physical representation of the idea behind my art piece.
To create the artwork I first used squared paper to design the piece and create a plan, and afterwards used this plan to guide me as I embroidered my fabric and created the final piece.

Throughout the process of developing this creative piece, I have considered the complex interrelations of the systems and organs within the body. Sometimes symptoms which can seem random and unrelated will add up to show a clearer picture of the underlying medical condition. This is an extremely important lesson to learn as a medical student, it encourages you not to overlook symptoms or to pass them off as unrelated, as they may be the clue you need to reach a diagnosis and improve the life of the patient. In practice, it is very important to ask the patient about any other symptoms they have been experiencing, even if they don’t think they are related to the presenting complaint. This is an effective method of unearthing symptoms in other systems when there may not be time to perform a full review of systems.

Due to the intricate nature of embroidery, it was a lengthy process creating this work and therefore I had a large amount of time to reflect on the meaning of this piece and to consider the different ways in which the organs I have chosen to depict may be related to one another.