Book Cover


	Obamacare by mandate, providing Medicare Advantage and Medicaid to uninsured Americans as an entitlement for the poor will enrich insurance companies and Big Pharma and bankrupt our economy.


	Medical Informatics


	Medical Computing


	ObamaCare


	Healthcare Reform


	Roger H Strube, MD

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Book Cover

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The cover art and artist tell the story.

Sometimes you can judge a book by looking at its cover.

Rijalynne Saari-Perez

Rijalynne pronounced (rye-a-lynn), is a design consultant for the Milwaukee area Design Center of a nationally know decorating firm. Prior to this position she was the Artist and Creative Director of “& So Much More” where she transformed plain white walls into spectacular works of art for over 15 years. Rijalynne’s interest in art and design span three decades. Her passion for painting started as a young child. As she aged so did her eye for creativity and a maturing of her talent. Following her aspirations, she went on to receive her Bachelors Degree in Fine Arts from the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design in 1993.

My wife and Rijalynne’s mother were best friends in grade school. That friendship between our families has lasted to this day. We watched Rijalynne grow up and followed her career. I was honored when she accepted the cover art design commission.

Rijalynne began her career by creating large scaled murals and 3 dimensional displays for a local company. While working both residentially and commercially, painting murals and faux finishes, it wasn’t long before she began as a freelance illustrator, producing illustrations for high profile clients all across the United States. Some of her works include the 2001 Llewellyn Astrological Calendar and recently illustrating The Riches Of Rangoberra (Raven Tree Press).

Rijalynne has over fifteen years experience designing and producing both commercial and residential faux finishes, murals, trompe l’oeil, and portraits.

I had seen Rijalynne’s work and believed her artistic talent was a great match for the cover art. Fortunately, she was able to devote enough of her free time to complete the project. After discussing the contents of the book and my ideas about the cover art, Rijalynne got to work.

The Cover -- Concept to Final Artwork

I wanted the cover art to tell the story of the book. The book is about the vision of our health care system I developed as I transitioned from centuries old paper medical records through administration of health care to the electronic age. The first design concepts we discussed depicted the old, paper and memory bound past on the left. A robotic figure on the right would point the way to the electronic computerized future. Originally, some version of the Honda Asimo robot or one of the cyborg characters from Star Trek for the right side was suggested to Rijalynne. I wanted the way forward to look like an enhanced Six Million Dollar Man. I asked her to consider incorporation of a version of Janus, the Roman god of gates, doorways, beginnings and endings. This theme fit the book very well considering both the transition from old to new and the gate keeper concepts presented in the book. For inspiration I referred her to images of Janus and these cyborg robots.







	I also provided conceptual composite picture showing the Vitruvian Man on the left and the Honda Robot on the right. A picture of the Robin Williams robot from Bicentennial Man was included for reference. A copy of the document I sent to Rijalynne is reproduced below.

I also sent Rijalynne a copy of the poster for the 1927 silent film, “Metropolis.” My research of robots had led me to this film. I downloaded the film and the poster from Netflix. The movie was long but ground breaking for its time. The social issues presented were not unlike what we are going through today. The special effects, for 1927, were revolutionary. The robot was visually very interesting. On the down side, the robot was evil.

Rijalynne produced a very rough first draft of my concepts. The influences of the Bicentennial Man robot and the Metropolis robot are evident. There is a hint at the Vitruvian Man background. Unfortunately, the composite turned out to be somewhat frightening. The first draft may be seen below.

With this rendering, the cyborg concept was dead. The figure would have to be human. One side representing the old past and the other, the future of health care delivery. We settled on using the Vitruvian Man as the inspiration for the cover. The left half of the image would represent the past. The right side the future. This old half man, dressed in the time of Hippocrates or Asclepius, the god of medicine, holds a scroll representing paper charts, and the staff of Asclepius. The modern half figure on the left holds generic electronic devices. The draft Rijalynne produced is below.




	Rijalynne was much closer to telling the story of the book. Somehow the important values of the past had to be tied to the future. Two important traditions of medicine in Latin would appear on the left. The Staff of Asclepius was also on the left and put the rendering out of balance. I asked Rijalynne to move the staff to the center and place a writing quill in the right hand. The background on the left was colored in earth tones to look like parchment. In Latin the words, “HIPPOCRATIC OATH” and “FIRST DO NO HARM” fade in and out. The figure holds the Rod of Asclepius in the center of the rendering joining the healing traditions of the past with those of the future. This symbol offers a lesson for some of us. Asclepius may have practiced Fee-for-Service (FFS) medicine. He was killed by Zeus after taking gold to raise Hippolytus from the dead. The right side represents the future of medical care. This young half man, dressed in a modern white laboratory coat, holds a PDA in one hand and an electronic notepad in the other, representing medicine’s digital future. The background colors are crisp and metallic. The background was to show random ASCII code (lines of “0s” and “1s”) but Rijalynne suggested many folks in this digital age would decode the numbers. She suggested the ASCII binary code on the right match the Latin words on the left to ward off the techies. Rijalynne’s final draft, prior to finishing the cover art may be viewed below.



		I was helped very little by my high school Latin but a little online research provided the spelling and ASCII binary code needed for the words in the cover design. The document containing the Latin and ASCII binary code may be reviewed below.


	Rijalynne’s final cover art may be viewed below. The Latin words for “FIRST DO NO HARM” and “HIPPOCRATIC OATH” are on the left with the corresponding ASCII Binary code on the right. The left hands hold parchment and quill, the right electronic devices. The old and new are bound together with the staff of Asclepius. This picture tells the story of one hundred sixty thousand words.

Following completion and submission of the first draft of my completed manuscript, iUniverse advised splitting the manuscript into two books. The first book would be my memoir. In lay language, it tells my life’s story of discovery of the problems in our health care system and their solution. The second book would be an in depth presentation of medical delivery, indemnity insurance and managed care. My vision of the future of health care is presented in detail. A complete business plan for developing the necessary technology is included.

I had to make a choice regarding the cover art. It could not be used on both books as this could cause some confusion for public. I decided the cover art above fit best with the shift in the technology paradigm described in the first book, Discovering the Cause and the Cure for America’s Health Care Crisis - A physician’s memoir. The public had to see this cover now.

This first book should be at stores and available on Amazon/Kindle after April 1 2011. Creative Design for Health Care Reform should be available in Fall 2011.

Discovering the Cause and Cure for

America’s Health Care Crisis

A physician’s memoir

and

Creative Design for Health Care Reform

Published by iUniverse available on line at Amazon in both print and ebook versions. It is also available at Borders and Barnes and Noble book stores.

Amazon: Hard & Paperback - http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Roger+H+Strube+MD&x=11&y=18

Barnes & Noble Hard & Paperback - http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Discovering-the-Cause-and-the-Cure-for-Americas-Health-Care-Crisis/Roger-H-Strube-MD/e/9781462003884/?itm=1&USRI=roger+h+strube+md

Borders e-book - http://www.borders.com/online/store/TitleDetail?sku=1462003877

Diesel-ebooks - http://www.diesel-ebooks.com/author/Strube%20M.D.,%20Roger%20H./results/1.html

iUniverseBookStore

ISBN: 978-1-4620-0389-1 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-1-4620-0388-4 (cloth)

ISBN: 978-1-4620-0387-7 (ebk)

[HEALTH CARE REFORM] [Book Cover] [Roger H Strube MD] [Author Biography] [Discovering the Cause] [Press Kit] [Designing Reform] [Glossary] [Self-Publishing] [Medicine in Crisis] [Managed Care] [Population Management] [Obamacare] [Other Financing Systems] [Electronic Medical Records] [Medical Decision Support] [Patient Centered Medical Home] [Good Life-Good Death] [Internet Links] [Resources] [Book Reviews]