Articles and Publications

Catalysts for Change

April 1, 2011 / Dochitect / Commentaries & Event Reviews

Commentaries

Publication: World Health Design
Publication Reference: 2011;4(2):14-15.
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Healthcare reform in the US is still in transition, with the end-goal being to provide the highest quality care at the lowest possible cost. Experts anticipate that increased access to care will inevitably lead to more demand being placed on facilities and the existing building infrastructure. Changing the way that care is delivered will no doubt have an impact on space needs, prompting the design of environments that are cost-effective, functional and flexible.

With major healthcare reform underway in all corners of the globe, what role should designers and architects play in rising to its challenges?

Read what three experts who take a personal view from their own territory have to say, including North America, Australia and the UK.

Commentaries

Humanizing the Hospital: Design Lessons from a Finnish Sanatorium

August 10, 2010 / Dochitect / Evidence-Based Design

Peer-Reviewed Publications

Publication: Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ)
Publication Date: First published online Sept 21, 2009. In print August 10, 2010;182(11):E535-E537.
Author: Diana C. Anderson, MD, MArch
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As medicine has moved toward evidence-based practice, so too has hospital design, which is increasingly guided by research linking physical environments to health care outcomes through the process of evidence-based design. The Paimio Sanatorium, built in the early 1930s in the southwest portion of Finland and designed by the architect Alvar Aalto, demonstrates an appreciation for good design and the ambition to create healing environments that emulate nature.

Prior to the development of evidence-based design, Alvar Aalto created a healing environment addressing each patient’s psychological and social needs. Just as the starting point in the Paimio Sanatorium design was the individual whose privacy and comfort were of central importance, the current field of evidence-based hospital design emulates this focus of the physical setting as therapeutic.

Peer-Reviewed Publications

I’m Still Here: A breakthrough approach to understanding someone living with Alzheimer’s Disease

December 29, 2009 / Dochitect / Design for Geriatrics

Book Review

Publication: Health Environments Research & Design Journal
Publication Date: 2009;3(1):118-120.
Book Author: John Zeisel, Ph.D.
Book Review Author: Diana C. Anderson, MD, MArch
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The book I’m Still Here: A breakthrough approach to understanding someone living with Alzheimer’s Disease acknowledges a deeper understanding of this devastating condition, the strength of non-pharmacologic treatments and, most importantly, an offer of hope for continued loving relationships and quality of life.

Click here to read dochitect’s complete book review.

Link to Purchase Book:

I’m Still Here Book Review

Fellowship: Opportunity, Mentorship, and Legacy

November 23, 2009 / Dochitect / Commentaries & Event Reviews

Commentaries

Publication: Healthcare Design Magazine
Date: November 23, 2009
Authors: Diana Anderson, MD, LEED AP; Kelly Egdorf, LEED AP, Assoc. & Ashley Dias, LEED AP, EDAC
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Architectural fellowships are relatively new in the architectural education process and may offer budding professionals increased benefits and career-promoting opportunities aimed at enriching the ongoing personal and professional development process.

Click here to read more about architectural fellowships.

Commentaries

Local Identity, Global Perspective: Review of the International Academy’s 6th World Congress and Exhibition

July 1, 2009 / Dochitect / Commentaries & Event Reviews

Event Reviews

Publication: World Health Design
Publication Reference: 2009;2(3):14-17.
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The 6th Design & Health World Congress & Exhibition, which took place in Singapore in 2009, had the goal of spreading knowledge and fostering dialogue between researchers and practitioners in the interdisciplinary field of healthcare design.

The gathering of almost 400 delegates, including architects, designers, health administrators, economists, psychologists, clinicians, nurses, health scientists and government officials from more than 30 countries, to exchange research, design solutions, stimulate discussion for new ideas and find and create business opportunities, demonstrated clearly how healthcare must now be considered within a global context.

Read a review of the 6th Design & Health World Congress & Exhibition here.

Commentaries

Lessons from Evidence-Based Medicine: What Healthcare Designers Can Learn From the Medical Field

June 1, 2009 / Dochitect / Evidence-Based Design

Letter to the Editors

Publication: Health Environments Research & Design Journal
Publication Reference: 2009 Summer;2(4):130-1.
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The theory paper by Viets entitled “Lessons from Evidence-Based Medicine: What Healthcare Designers Can Learn From the Medical Field,” advises that the field of medicine, like architecture, has faced many challenges in adopting an evidence-based approach.

Read dochitect’s letter to the editor in response to this article, which comments on the challenges faced in adopting an evidence-based approach, within both the medical and architectural fields.

Letters to the Editor

Critical Care Design – Lessons Learned From 16 Years of SCCM Award Winning Designs

March 1, 2009 / Dochitect / Design for Critical Care

Book Chapter

Book Title: Design for Critical Care: An Evidence-Based Approach
Book Authors: D. Kirk Hamilton, Mardelle McCuskey Shepley
Publisher: Oxford, United Kingdom. Architectural Press of Elsevier, 2009
Chapter Title: Critical Care Design – Lessons Learned From 16 Years of SCCM Award Winning Designs
Chapter Authors: Charles D. Cadenhead, FAIA, FACHA, Diana C. Anderson, MD, MArch, LEED AP, Robert G. Uhlenhake, AIA, ACHA, LEED AP

Except: Beginning in 1992, the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM), with the American Association of Critical Care Nurses (AACN), and the American Institute of Architects/Academy of Architecture for Health (AIA/AAH), holds an annual SCCM Intensive Care Unit (ICU) Design Competition.

Each year at the SCCM Congress, awards are presented to the medial director and architect of the chosen winning unit. Each of the sponsoring organizations, composed of physicians, nurses and architects, is represented in judging competition entries, leading to the judging of selections by multi-professional perspectives. Over the history of the design competition, an impressive array of critical care units have been identified, all with varying attributes. The richness of information and best-practice examples that these winning designs offer encouraged a review of best-practices design trends. This analysis presents best-practice trends from the SCCM ICU Design Competition winners between 1992-2009.

Link to Purchase Book:

Design for Critical Care Book Chapter

A View on the Room

February 4, 2009 / Dochitect / Evidence-Based Design

Letter to the Editor

Publication: Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Letter to the Editor
Publication Reference: 2009 Feb 4;301(5):486-7.

2009_JAMA COVER In their JAMA commentary entitled “Single-patient rooms for safe patient-centered hospitals”, Drs Detsky and Etchells present an overview of the debate about single-patient rooms, confirming the current status of private rooms as the industry standard for new construction in the United States.

Dochitect responds to the article and comments on patient room types and design, noting that one room size may not fit all.

Letters to the Editor

Critical Care Unit Design, The Winners and Future Trends: An Investigative Study

February 1, 2009 / Dochitect / Design for Critical Care

Peer-Reviewed Publications

Publication: World Health Design
Publication Reference: 2009;2(3):72-77.
Authors: Charles D. Cadenhead, FAIA, FACHA; Diana C. Anderson, MD, MArch, LEED AP
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This study compares key trends in the design of the award-winning critical care units over the 17-year history of the annual Society of Critical Care Medicine Intensive Care Unit (ICU) design competition.

Click here for the complete study, including an overview of the identified best-practice critical care design trends.

Peer-Reviewed Publications

Icons: Review of Healthcare Design 2008 Conference

January 20, 2009 / Dochitect / Commentaries & Event Reviews

Event Reviews

Publication: World Health Design
Publication Reference: 2009;4(1):10-11.
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The growing interest of multidisciplinary professions in the relationship between design and health was once again demonstrated at the annual Healthcare Design conference, held in 2008 in Washington DC, USA.

More than 3,600 delegates attended to participate in a comprehensive programme of didactic sessions and roundtable discussions. The conference’s aim is to gain new knowledge and understanding of how the design of built environments directly impacts the safety, operation, clinical outcomes and financial success of healthcare facilities now and into the future.

Read a review of the 2008 Healthcare Design event here.

Commentaries

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