When Identity Defines Illness
Public health awareness poster examining how labels and assumptions can shape medical treatment.
Concept
This poster focuses on how patients can become reduced to labels within healthcare systems. Factors such as race, wealth, gender, language, insurance status, and social bias are presented as forces surrounding and restricting the patient. By placing the figure inside a medicine bottle, the poster emphasizes vulnerability and helplessness, suggesting that patients can feel trapped inside systems that define them before truly understanding them.
Research
This project references KFF research on racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare access and treatment in the United States. The research documents measurable differences connected to insurance coverage, medical access, and systemic inequality. These findings support the poster’s focus on how identity and institutional assumptions can influence the quality of care patients receive.
Medium
Digital poster design, 2026.