Clinicians for Design is an international network of leaders with a vision to inspire and accelerate the design of environments and systems, enriching the healthcare interface. Its mission is to engage clinical professionals within research, education and practice. We seek to enhance health outcomes through innovations in the design of healthcare spaces, technologies, care delivery systems and policies.

Increasingly, clinicians are asking not only for the architect’s perspective, but to develop a skill-set and knowledge-base that will allow them to help shape the future of hospitals, medicine, and healthcare.

Clinicians for Design offers several unique platforms to apply clinical insights and experience to the design of settings and systems that serve medical practice. Clinicians for Design and the Human Experience Lab at Perkins+Will are hosting an invitation-only meeting and presentations during the European Healthcare Design Congress, on June 11-14th, 2017 at the Royal College of Physicians in London, UK.

In addition, Clinicians for Design is planning a series of seminars and will be developing printed and digital resources to provide an international platform for sharing perspectives and goals.  We will be hosting colloquia, educational sessions, and producing both print and online publications to inspire the emergence of new models of practice. This evolving knowledge-base and skill-set will help to shape the future of hospitals, medicine, and healthcare for the well-being of patients and clinicians themselves.

By connecting our global network, healthcare and research professionals may begin to facilitate the next tipping point in medicine, and challenge the stated norms for health & care design. Ultimately, by bringing the design team and the health care team together, the Clinicians for Design group will provide a nexus of clinically inspired publications, best-practices and policy documents to serve each other and our patients.

Clinicians for Design was co-founded by Drs. Anderson and Edelstein.
As a board-certified healthcare architect and Internal Medicine physician, Diana Anderson, MD, a “dochitect”, combines educational and professional experience in medicine and architecture. Eve Edelstein, PhD, F-AAA, a “neuro-architect”, applies her research and clinical work from the University College London, National Hospital for Neurology & Neurosurgery, and University California Berkeley, among others, in her current work as director of the Human Experience Lab at Perkins+Will.

Dochitect was invited as a Judge for the 2016 European Healthcare Design Awards.

Category: Healthcare Design Projects (Over 25,000 sqm)
Judges: Simona Agger, European Health Property Network, Italy; Trisha Down, Southmead Hospital, UK; Diana Anderson, Stantec, USA

Winner: Alder Hey Children’s Hospital
Commissioned by Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust
Designed by BDP
Civil and structural engineering by WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff
Environmental engineering by Hoare Lea

Highly commended: Akershus University Hospital
Commissioned by Helse Sør-Øst RHF
Designed by C.F. Møller Architects

Highly commended: Ng Teng Fong General Hospital and Jurong Community Hospital
Commissioned by Ministry of Health, Singapore, and Jurong Health Services
Designed by CPG Consultants in collaboration with HOK and Studio 505

Dochitect also had the opportunity to speak on Critical Care Design at the European Healthcare Design event. Click here for a review of the presentation.

Excerpt: “Quand la Dochitect^® s’en mêle: Bien qu’il n’existe aucune formule, aucune norme officielle à suivre en matière d’aménagement de clinique médicale, la D^re Diana Anderson, une Montréalaise d’origine établie à New York, souhaite faire évoluer les choses des deux côtés de la frontière canado-américaine. « Il est temps que les médecins et les architectes collaborent étroitement pour créer de meilleurs environnements de santé pour les patients et le personnel », indique-t-elle.”

In this article, Dochitect comments on the design of clinic space, in particular the need for collaboration between clinicians and architects during design, the changing nature of patient care with a focus on complex chronic diseases, and the need for flexibility and adaptability of ambulatory spaces with the incorporation of new and ever-advancing technologies.

Click here to view the complete article on medical clinic design.

Universal Design is the design and composition of an environment so that it can be accessed, understood and used to the greatest extent possible by all people regardless of their age, size, ability or disability.

In 2013, the Centre for Excellence in Universal Design supported the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland (RIAI) to launch a Universal Design category as part of their annual architecture awards. The aim of the award is to promote excellence in Universal Design among the architectural profession in Ireland. As part of its support for the award, the CEUD invites an international architect to chair the jury for the award and to present a lecture related to Universal Design to RIAI members.

Dochitect was invited as the Jury Chair for the 2016 RIAI Universal Design Awards, and in addition presented a lecture on Universal Design for Healthcare.