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Regina  Holliday

Regina Holliday

Patient Rights Activist, Artist, Author, Speaker & Founder of the Walking Gallery

Biography

“Regina was fantastic. Her story was powerful and she told it beautifully. I have not stopped thinking about her and it really left me with the importance of making the decision every day to make sure I help my patients understand their diagnosis and treatment plans before they leave the office.” - Great Lakes Health Connect

"Regina was absolutely fabulous!! We loved having her here and I’m still getting such positive comments and emails. Her presentation was so perfect. She did such a nice job with the painting. She will be hard to top next year, for sure. My CEO was very thrilled with the entire conference, but it was Regina who set the stage." - Augusta University Medical Center, Center for Patients and Families

Regina Holliday is a Maryland-based patient advocate and artist known for painting a series of murals depicting the need for clarity and transparency in medical records. This advocacy mission was inspired by her husband Frederick Allen Holliday II and his struggle to get appropriate care. Afflicted with kidney cancer, Fred suffered poor care coordination, a lack of access to data and a series of medical errors and, as a result, lost his battle. During Fred’s 11 weeks of continuous hospitalization in five facilities, Holliday learned that she would have to wait 21 days and would be charged 73 cents per page for Fred’s medical records. In addition to already expensive care, the many necessary pages would have cost hundreds of dollars. These institutional flaws spurred Holliday to try to improve care for her husband as well as all patients who are abused in this way. As a result, Fred’s death inspired Holliday to use painting as a catalyst for change. Read More >

With her passion for advocating for patients to receive timely access to their health care data, her artwork became part of the national healthcare debate. Reported on in the mainstream press, as well as reviewed by such journals as BMJ and APA, Holliday has earned a platform to push for legislation that would provide better care for patients. Continuing her advocacy through art, she also started The Walking Gallery movement, where more than 400 volunteer members don business suits or blazers painted with either their story, their loved one’s story, or their mission within healthcare. The jackets, which are painted by Holliday or one of the 45 other artist members in The Walking Gallery, help change public health policy . The members of Walking Gallery attend medical conferences with a powerful visual story painted on their backs. The paintings help to convey the fact that the people wearing them are living, breathing examples of patients impacted by health care decisions, as opposed to just a statistical number. Holliday’s jacket paintings depicting the patient story have been covered in The Wall Street Journal, Marketplace and USA Today.  She also began live painting the content of medical conferences and events in 2010.  To date she has painted over 270 canvases depicting the stories of providers working in HIT, pharma, medical organizations, and hospitals.   

In addition, Holliday is published author. The Walking Wall: 73 Cents to the Walking Gallery, her first work, is devoted to the stories that comprise her Walking Gallery campaign and was published in Australia. Her latest book The Writing on the Wall (2015), a memoir, takes readers on an odyssey of abuse and empowerment.  Holiday was honored at the Health 2.0 Annual Conference in 2016 with a Patient Activist Award. In both 2016 and 2017 she served as a judge for Women in Health IT Awards at HIMSS.  

Backed by her own patient and caregiving experiences, Regina Holliday travels the globe heralding her message of patient empowerment and inclusion in healthcare decision making. She fearlessly stands before officials and practitioners demanding a thoughtful dialog on the role patients play in their own healthcare.  Holliday is passionate about the benefits of health information technology and timely data access for patients, which is why she was one of HealthTech's Must-Read Health IT Blogger’s in 2017.  Read Less ^

Speaker Videos

The Walking Gallery of Healthcare - Part 1

The Walking Galley of Healthcare - Part 2

The Walking Gallery - Medical Murals

WCDB Conference

We Can Do Better

Little Miss A Type

Speech Topics

Quality & Patient Safety

In this presentation, speaker Regina Holliday shares her personal experience caring for her husband and addresses ways of improving the quality of healthcare delivery as well as ways to enhance patient safety.

Patient Advocacy Through Art

In this presentation, speaker Regina Holliday shares her experience painting murals and artwork that depict the struggles and problems of current patient healthcare policies. She also discusses her advocacy movement “The Walking Gallery,” for which medical providers and advocates wear “patient story” paintings on the backs of business suits.

Patient Experience

Enhancing the patient experience can improve health outcomes. In this keynote, speaker Regina Holliday gives perspective on how to increase patient satisfaction.

Use of Social Media in Patient Rights & Health Policy

Ever wondered how social media could affect your mission in medicine and patient-centered care? Artist and activist Regina Holliday will explore the power of social media in delivering a message in healthcare and public policy. Holliday will explain the natural next step of crowd-funding your health mission and will elaborate on art advocacy, art actions, and flash-mobbing to spread awareness.

Care for the Caregiver

After an accidental adverse event, a healthcare organization's first priority is the patient and his or her family. But caregivers involved in these incidents also experience psychological trauma and need the support of their peers. In this presentation, speaker Regina Holliday discusses the delicate issue of caring for caregivers after unintentional errors have harmed patients.

Books & Media

Books

The Writing on the Wall