The PPE Portrait project started during the 2014–2015 Ebola outbreak in Liberia by artist Mary Beth Heffernan as a way to humanize physicians, nurses and other medical professionals wearing full personal protective equipment (PPE). Patients experiencing one of the most terrifying times of their lives are unable to see the faces of their medical staff, but having a photo sticker on the staff member's PPE gown allows the patient to better relate to their caregiver. This project was revived in 2020 by Stanford social scientist Cati Brown-Johnson and featured on The Rachel Maddow Show, NPR, Smithsonian magazine and KQED.
2014–2015 Ebola outbreak The idea came from the 2014–2015 Ebola outbreak in Liberia. American artist Mary Beth Heffernan, who is a professor of art and art history at Occidental College, saw the full suits the Ebola health workers were wearing and she created the PPE Portrait Project. Heffernan called it "an art intervention designed to improve Ebola care". Regarding cultural sensitivity, Heffernan said that developing the project "involved close readings of Ebola survivors’ stories, in particular the first-person narratives of doctors who became infected and lived to write about it. Their stories were electrifying, and the words they chose to describe their experience—of being sick, isolated, and the trauma of not seeing a human face in their caregivers—are seared in my mind." The grant funded project focused on isolation of patients—the benefits of "puncturing that isolation" by allowing patients to better connect with their providers. Liberian doctors J. Soka Moses and Moses Massaquoi invited Heffernan to visit with the Ebola doctors and staff. Massaquoi said that he was receiving emails from people "pitching some untested scheme ... it was getting to be kind of a pain". But the proposal to put photos on the suits made so much sense he responded to Heffernan immediately. Heffernan told Maddow staff that she "had hoped the PPE portraits would become standard best medical practice for all kinds of patients who have to experience isolation of never seeing people outside of PPE—only masked faces for days at a time." The Gold Foundation funded Heffernan to travel to Liberia. Heffernan had received $5,000 that she was using for this project. Health care staff there "reported feeling more human". She spent three weeks training the staff and left supplies for them to use. Heffernan wanted the project to be "sustainable and achievable with local means." The project was featured in the Being Human exhibition at the Wellcome Collection in London in September 2019. The exhibit featured mannequins dressed in PPE with PPE Portrait labels. Heffernan provided first-person narratives from the healthcare workers featured to accompany the exhibit. Those featured received an honorarium for the use of their image and story. In the five years since the Ebola outbreak, Heffernan approached many hospitals but found that they were uninterested. Medical staff wearing full PPE during the COVID-19 pandemic has changed that attitude with many hospitals. However, many of the providers involved in the original project have reported that they are not currently using PPE Portrait labels, as they are instead focused on the challenges of "sourcing and rigorously using the PPE itself."
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