Arts in Medicine Initiative
I have been fortunate to become involved with faculty/doctors from Texas Tech Health Science Center Speech and Hearing Pathology and game theorists from College of Media and Communications in an arts in medicine initiative.
2019 Everyone's NOT Doing it: A Visual Approach to Prevention of on Non-Medical Use of Prescription Medication on College Campuses, Carla Tedeschi (PI-Art), Stacy Elko (Co-PI Art), Justin Keene (Co-PI MCOM)
The non-medical use and abuse of prescription medications on college campuses is a serious public health concern with current preventative approaches being largely ineffective. This research will inform the production of novel and highly innovative messages intended to prevent and stop the NUPM on college campuses.
2018-2019 The Interpretability of Emotions: Comparing Facial Expression Recognition in ASD and Neurotypical Individuals, Stacy Elko(TTU-Art), Tobias Kroll (TTUHSC-SHP), Sherry Sancibrian (TTUHSC-SHP)
Autism Spectrum Disorder is a growing developmental disability in the United States. The present project addresses the question whether artistic expertise can help enhance recognizably of facial emotion expressions. This project will evaluate the recognizably of facial emotion expressions as facilitated by varying artistic renderings of elicited photographs, starting with comparing photographs to simple line drawings. This proposal is the first part of a comprehensive project to create an app-based assessment and therapy tool for speech-language pathologists and psychologists that evaluates and trains facial emotional expression in individuals with ASD. Currently this therapy is conducted using in-house art work that varies in quality; the goal of this project is to create a quality, marketable, evidence-based electronic version for use in clinics, public schools and private use.
2017-2018 Interactive Environments to Facilitate Communication between Post Stroke Aphasia Patients and Health Care Providers, Stacy Elko (PI-Art), Melinda Corwin (TTUHSC-SHP), John Velez (TTU-MCOM), Justin Keene (TTU-MCOM)
An estimated 7 million Americans 20 years and older have been afflicted with a stroke and 1 to 2 million have developed aphasia as a result of that stroke. Aphasia is a communication disorder that normally results from damage to the left parts of the brain that control language and causes difficulties in speaking, listening, reading, and writing. An interactive visual narrative will be developed that describes the physical process of a stroke.This narrative will step-by- step illustrate and explain the physical process of how a stroke occurs. This will explain the patient’s type of stroke along with the physical and mental changes that may occur: inability to walk/balance, use of only one arm, changes in vision, memory, speech, and understanding and other senses, emotions, and sex drive.