Compassion & Courage: Conversations in Healthcare

Ted Meyer – Understanding Patients Through Art

Marcus Engel Season 1 Episode 112

Today’s guest on Compassion & Courage is Ted Meyer, an artist and patient advocate who helps patients and medical professionals see the positive in the worst life can offer. Ted discusses the inspiration behind his artistic process and how he visualizes his emotions through art. Acknowledging the negative experiences that a patient has been through and turning them into something beautiful, Ted shares the secrets behind his artwork, his favorite scar, and the book that influenced his life.

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More About Ted Meyer:
Ted Meyer is a nationally recognized artist, curator and patient advocate who helps patients, students and medical professionals see the positive in the worst life can offer. Ted’s decades long project “Scarred for Life: Mono- prints of Human Scars” chronicles the trauma and courage of people who have lived through accidents and health crises.

Ted seeks to improve patient/physician communications and speaks about living as an artist with illness. Telling stories about his own art and the stories behind his scar art collection, he offers insight into living with pain, illness, and disfigurement. Ted has been featured on NPR and in the New York Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, and USA Today. His work has been displayed internationally in museums, hospitals, and galleries. As the Artist in Residence at USC Keck School of Medicine, Ted curates exhibitions of artwork by patients whose subject matter coincides with medical school curriculum. Ted has curated shows by artists challenged by MS, cancer, germ phobias, back pain, and other diseases. He is a Visiting Scholar at the National Museum of Health and Medicine, is a graduate of the Aspen Leadership Seminars, was the 2017 Sterling Visiting Professorship at Stanford University and has been TEDMED mainstage speaker.

Ted is also a writer, photographer and illustrator. He has written and illustrated several books. “Shrink Yourself: The Complete do-it-Yourself Book of Freudian Psychoanalysis,” “The Butt Hello - And Other Reasons My Cats Drive Me Crazy,” “Cats Around the World,” “Good Things You Can Learn from A Bad Relationship,” “Scarred for Life,” and “Woman Napping with Animals.” His award-winning documentary, “King of Dinoland,” follows outsider artist Abe DeLacerda.

 

Date: 7/24/2023 
Name of show: Compassion & Courage: Conversations in Healthcare
Episode title and number: Episode 112 – Ted Meyer – Understanding Patients Through Art