Metropolis Magazine: 3 Doctors Who Design Share What’s Energizing Health Care Architecture

Physicians with design experience dissect what is (and isn’t) working for patients, staff and facilities when it comes to offering quality care with wellness-focused benefits.

DIANA ANDERSON, MD, M.ARCH HEALTHCARE PRINCIPAL AT JACOBS 

• Cofounder of Clinicians for Design

• Instructor of Neurology at Boston University

• Geriatric Neurology Fellow at VA Boston Healthcare System

Health professionals can provide insights into health care operations and, most importantly, patient needs and experiences. These perspectives represent a unique opportunity for architects to experience the world of clinical medicine in a way that is typically hidden. We can walk the halls; we can talk to physicians and other clinicians; we can shadow individuals as they go about their daily routines. Having health providers participate in projects also promotes a data-driven design process, strengthening the built environment to benefit health outcomes.

While the clinical practice of health care and the fields of architecture, planning, and design have traditionally occupied different professional, social, and cultural worlds, emerging professionals are asking to move beyond these infrequent intersections and seek a convergence of career models through the domains of research, education, and practice. This movement has accelerated during the pandemic given the need for rapid, innovative, and often design-based solutions to many problems.

The pandemic exposed the need for a shift toward a data-driven design process, and the role buildings play in our physical, mental, and social health. One striking example is research that demonstrated that smaller-scale nursing homes had better outcomes—significantly fewer COVID-19 infections, hospital admissions, and deaths. What concerns me is the reactive approach to design seen during the pandemic with infection control as the main driver, which in my mind is only one element of health design. Ensuring quality of life and health (which includes mental, physical, and social health) for those who use health care spaces should still be paramount.

We can certainly create sealed spaces to keep infections at bay, but there is often a domino effect. We have seen the negative health effects of social isolation and loneliness—in medical settings, research has shown that long-term-care residents without personal contact with family or friends experienced greater excess mortality early in the COVID-19 pandemic. And this concept spans all spaces and environments. The detrimental effects of forced social isolation can be mitigated through design, even within our own homes. For example, views of nature at home have been shown to reduce levels of depression, loneliness, and anxiety, sometimes more than the actual use of outdoor green space itself. Design of the built environment at all spatial scales—from our homes to our neighborhoods and cities—is a determinant of health.

Read the full article HERE.