The Centre for Personalised Medicine recently ran a competition asking people who work or study at St Anne’s to send in sketches and paintings around a theme of ‘healthcare data’. We wrote about it in a previous blog post.

We’re delighted to announce the winning entry – these stunning paintings by Psychology and Philosophy undergraduate student Jake Mainwaring.

Painting obscured by blue paint
Unobscured painting

Jake writes: These paintings raise the debate: in the case of personal data, should the subject have the right to cover up something beautiful/useful (the painting underneath) if that would have bad consequences (e.g. data collected for research/statistical purposes being erased)?

Jake’s paintings vividly convey key challenges with collecting and using healthcare data responsibly: how can the beauty, complexity and nuance inherent in original data be retained while respecting the wishes and preserving the confidentiality of the person to whom those data relate?

We hope you enjoy these thought-provoking paintings as much as we did. Look out for future entries from our schools art competition, opening later this year!