The Marañon Nuclear Medicine Service has launched a humanization through art project

The Nuclear Medicine Service at Universitario General Hospital Gregorio Marañón humanized the service establishment through the work of artist Rafael Diaz, who is also a medical specialist.

The goal is to improve the environment in which patients stay during their diagnostic tests and radio-metabolism treatments, which, by their nature, can sometimes be longer. This project also targets professionals working in nuclear medicine, enabling them to have more open and accessible spaces that favor patient care.

Maranion Nuclear Medicine is a prestigious unit with more than 65 years of history and currently covers all examinations, diagnostic methods and treatments. The service also provides coverage for many hospitals, specialist centers and primary care centers in the Community of Madrid.

A project that unites art and science

The color and light of Rafael Díaz’s work accompanies users of the Nuclear Medicine Service at Gregorio Marañón Hospital in all the rooms they pass through and during their stay there. Already in the lobby itself, you can see a work created from the various diagnostic tests carried out there, forming a structure of concentric designs reminiscent of a cathedral rose window or a mandala.

Likewise, within the room in which diagnostic tests are conducted, elements of the periodic table that intervene in nuclear medicine appear through colors and shapes, giving scientific meaning to that universal chromatic language. Patients see only color, but for scientists they are substances that represent atomic numbers, electrons and chemical properties.

Another room where this humanization project might be more visible is the room where patients who have been given radioactive materials and isotopes have to wait for their conditions to appear on a PET/CT scan. Below are pictures of diagnosed and cured diseases. The drawings drawn by the patients themselves reflect what they felt when they were diagnosed and what they experienced when they got better and recovered.

Artist Rafael Diaz adds: “We cannot talk about humanization without taking into account the feelings of patients.” “Every painting is a patient. All this scientific, conceptual and artistic effort is to use art as a tool to deliver a message of healing and hope to patients.”

The head of the Nuclear Medicine Service, Juan Carlos Alonso Farto, recalls that the realization of this project, in which the authorship was shared with patients, has always had the support and authorization of the Cashew Ethics Committee and is part of the Gregorio Marañón Hospital humanization plan.

Implement other humanitarian measures

Among other measures contemplated in the humanization project launched by the Nuclear Medicine Service is respect that the patient, during tests, keeps his or her own clothing at all times. A well-received initiative, explains Nursing Superintendent of Service, Mª José del Pozo.

“Among the values ​​that we strive to achieve every day, the satisfaction of our patients occupies a very prominent place, directing the entire process of care to respond to their needs, preserve their rights and try to make the care provided more close, personal and above all respecting their dignity,” concludes the Head of the Nuclear Medicine Service, Juan Carlos Alonso.