Presentations

RAIC Panel Discussion- Redefining Long-Term Care: Architecture, Culture, and Person-Centered Approaches

September 3, 2025 / Dochitect / Design for Geriatrics

Presentations

Organization: The Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC)
Title: Redefining Long-Term Care: Architecture, Culture, and Person-Centered Approaches
Date: September 3, 2025

The RAIC Long Term Care Design Working Group presents Redefining Long-Term Care: Architecture, Culture, and Person-Centered Approaches.

DESCRIPTION: Join us for a 90-minute moderated panel discussion exploring the evolving role of architecture in long-term care (LTC) and dementia-friendly environments. In this session, experts will address key issues such as redefining institutional care, fostering cultural change, and creating architectural solutions that prioritize person-centered care. Panelists will share their experiences with new models of care, the importance of individualized care plans, and the impact of inclusive design on quality of life for residents.

This engaging session will provide architects, designers, and care professionals with practical insights on how to design environments that support aging in place and individuals with dementia. The webinar will also feature a live Q&A and provide valuable resources for further learning.

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

1. Identify key challenges in the current long-term care system and understand the need for redefined care models.

2. Describe how cultural shifts in long-term care settings can improve the experience of residents and staff.

3. Recognize architectural strategies and design components that support aging in place and dementia-friendly environments.

4. Evaluate the impact of person-centered care in long-term care, and the balance between standardized and evidence-based design.

5. Understand how to engage key stakeholders in the shift towards more inclusive, supportive care environments.

For more information, click HERE.

Panel Discussions

Canadian Institute: Healthcare Infrastructure for Aging Populations, Atlantic Canada

July 16, 2025 / Dochitect / Design for Geriatrics

Presentations

Event: Canadian Institute: Healthcare Infrastructure for Aging Populations, Atlantic Canada
Location: Halifax, NS
Date: July 16, 2025

Join policymakers, LTC operators, architects, and academics for a full day of solution-focused discussions on enhancing seniors care through improved design and delivery of the built environment.

Atlantic Canada is facing a significant demographic shift led by the baby boomer generation. While many seniors are enjoying longer, healthier lives at home, others will require additional support in the coming years.

To meet the volume and complexity of long-term care needs, Nova Scotia is accelerating the construction of new LTC homes and rapidly expanding others. It’s an opportunity to not only increase the availability of LTC but to also improve how these facilities are being designed.

Frameworks for Health: Applying Clinical Models to Design

February 14, 2025 / Dochitect / Evidence-Based Design

Presentations

Event: Texas A&M Department of Architecture – Arch4Health Lecture Series
Title: Frameworks for Health: Applying Clinical Models to Design
Date: February 14, 2025

Learning Objectives

1. How does built space impact health outcomes of users and what is the data? Health buildings have design components that act in the same capacity as medical interventions to influence user wellness and clinical outcomes.

2. What are the advantages to peer review in the traditional design process? A critical appraisal of the proposed design can generate key questions for owners/architects and impact operational, clinical, and design outcomes.

3. Which existing clinical frameworks utilized for patient care can be applied to architecture? Validated clinical tools (e.g.: 5Ms) can assist in ensuring a holistic approach to addressing multi-stakeholder needs.

Lectures

The Center for Health Design- Design for Healthy Aging: Innovative and Evidence-Based Practices for Every Setting

January 23, 2025 / Dochitect / Design for Geriatrics

In the News

Organization: The Center for Health Design
Title: Design for Healthy Aging: Innovative and Evidence-Based Practices for Every Setting
Date: January 23, 2025

The Workshop
Aging happens everywhere and with ever-greater frequency. The number of Americans aged 65 and older is projected to increase from 58 million in 2022 to 82 million by 2050 – a stunning 47% increase.

Nowhere is this demographic shift being felt more seismically than in the healthcare and living environments serving our aging population. People aged 65 and older are hospitalized twice as frequently as adults aged 45 to 64. The demand for all types of senior living – independent, assisted, skilled nursing and memory care – continues to outweigh supply.

Yes, it’s a challenge, but it’s also a tremendous opportunity – to re-envision, design and build a new generation of “age-friendly” care and living environments that support the goals of patients, residents, caregivers and organizations, and ultimately produce the best outcomes.

The Design for Healthy Aging workshop will provide you with not just a glimpse into that future, but the research, resources, tools and best practices to help get you there.

Whatever types of environments you are creating – from acute care and ambulatory/outpatient, to independent, assisted living, long term and memory care settings – the innovations, ideas and lessons learned presented by our expert faculty of forward-thinking administrators, policy makers, clinicians and designers will have broad and immediate application and impact.

Age-Friendly Health System Initiatives: The 4Ms (and sometimes 5)What is the near and far future of an Age-Friendly Health System (AFHS)? The national AFHS initiative launched by CMS and IHI, uses a well-established clinical framework, the 4Ms – What Matters, Medications, Mentation, Mobility (and increasingly a 5th M: Multi-complexity) – to advance care for older adults. How do the 4Ms create a framework to think about the built environment? Hear from this panel on the policy, regulatory, and practice initiatives that are underway, and learn about the possibilities that exist to address design for aging in all settings.

Panelists
Alice Bonner, Director of Strategic Partnerships, Johns Hopkins School of Nursing CAPABLE Program, Senior Advisor for Aging at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI)
Diana Anderson, MD, M.Arch, FACHA, Dochitect
Michael McKay, AIA, ACHE, EDAC, LEED AP, NCARB, Planning Design Construction and Corporate Real Estate, UW Health

University of Toronto Zeidler-Evans Annual Architecture of Health Lecture: Designing for Older Persons in a Transforming World

October 17, 2024 / Dochitect / Design for Geriatrics

Presentations

Event: Invited Keynote Speaker, University of Toronto Zeidler-Evans Annual Architecture of Health Lecture
Title: Designing for Older Persons in a Transforming World
Date: October 17, 2024

Speaker Bios

Diana Anderson, MD, M.Arch, FACHA

Dr. Diana Anderson is a triple boarded professional – healthcare architect (ACHA-American College of Healthcare Architects), internist, and a geriatrician. She earned her MD from the University of Toronto (OT8). As a “dochitect,”she pioneered a collaborative, evidence-based model for approaching healthcare from the medicine and architecture fields simultaneously. A past Fellow of the Harvard Medical School Center for Bioethics, Diana explores the ethics of built space related to design for aging. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Neurology at Boston University, and a recipient of an Alzheimer’s Association Clinician Scientist Fellowship. She is a healthcare principal at Jacobs, contributing her thought leadership at the intersection of design and health.

Molly Chan

Molly Chan is a principal with the firm of NSDA Architects, a diverse and dynamic architectural practice based in Vancouver, BC. A six-time recipient of the Lieutenant Governor’s award, the firm focuses on a wide range of projects including special needs, social purpose housing, affordable rental, healthcare and multi-family residential. Current projects include YWCA Housing for Women and Children, The Salvation Army Harbour Light facility, and Foxglove Supported Housing and Shelter.

Stephen Verderber, Arch,D., NCARB, ACSA Distinguished Professor

Dr. Stephen Verderber is Professor of Architecture, Director of the Centre for Design + Health Innovation in the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design, and Adjunct Professor in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health/IHPME at the University of Toronto. A Registered Architect in the U.S. and co-founder of R-2ARCH (Research to Architecture), he is sole author of seven books, co-author of two, and has published over one-hundred peer reviewed scholarly and professional articles. His most recent books are Innovations in Transportable Healthcare Architecture (2016), Innovations in Behavioural Health Architecture (2018) and Innovations in Hospice Architecture (Second Edition, 2020). His first book, Healthcare Architecture in an Era of Radical Transformation (2000), has become a standard reference. Principal investigator of numerous externally sponsored research projects and reports, he holds one of only two North American faculty cross-appointments linking architecture and public health. Dr. Verderber has delivered invited keynotes at numerous international conferences on evidence-based health research and design, educational pedagogy, eco-humanist health-centric design, and has received numerous awards for his interdisciplinary contributions to the advancement of the discipline, profession, and broader community.

Keynote Presentations

Politecnico di Milano – Keynote speaker at 15th anniversary event for post-graduate Masters in Hospital Design

October 2, 2024 / Dochitect / Evidence-Based Design

Presentations

Event: Politecnico di Milano: 15th anniversary of post-graduate Masters in Hospital Design program
Title: Architectural Design as a Determinant of Health
Date: October 2, 2024

See full program HERE.

Keynote Presentations

31st Maine Geriatrics Conference Plenary Speaker: Architecture for Aging: The Built Environment as Healthcare

May 23, 2024 / Dochitect / Design for Geriatrics

Presentations

Event: 31st Annual Maine Geriatrics conference, Bar Harbor, ME
Presenter: Diana Anderson
Date: May 23, 2024

Dr. Anderson presented a plenary session entitled Architecture for Aging: The Built Environment as Healthcare.

Session Description:
A growing body of empirical data and evidence-based design research demonstrates that architecture impacts care delivery as well as health outcomes. This talk explores built space as an important determinant of health and questions whether the built environment itself should be considered alongside other parameters of care, analogous to our medical interventions. A current focus on design equity, ensuring overall accessibility to healthcare built space, is explored. It is imperative that we consider a convergence of the healthcare and design disciplines in order to promote novel solutions to augment built environment resilience and subsequently support equitable, safe and efficient care delivery.

Dr. Anderson also hosted a subsequent Fireside Chat to further discuss issues around design and aging.

Session Description:
In this Fireside Chat, attendees will have the opportunity to dive deeper into this topic and Dr. Anderson’s work on design projects within the United States, Canada and Australia. Be part of this open discussion and how her work is not shifting into community living settings.

See more information HERE.

Conference Presentations

In Network’s Designing for Health Podcast: Interview with Diana Anderson, MD [Podcast]

May 21, 2024 / Dochitect / The Physician-Architect Model

Presentations

Title: Designing for Health: Interview with Diana Anderson, MD [Podcast]
Podcast: In Network’s Designing for Health podcast
Date: May 21, 2024

Architecture in healthcare plays a pivotal role in shaping patient experiences and outcomes, extending far beyond mere aesthetics. Thoughtfully designed healthcare facilities optimize patient flow, enhance accessibility, and foster healing environments conducive to recovery. This isn’t based on mere conjecture, either; a plethora of peer-reviewed research has shown the significant effect evidence-based design can and does have on patients and their well-being. With this research readily available, industry leaders should consider leaning on health architects and other experts to prevent undue harm and promote health and wellness.

On today’s episode of In Network’s Designing for Health podcast feature, Nordic Chief Medical Officer Craig Joseph, MD, talks with triple board-certified physician and architect Diana Anderson, MD.

They discuss her background in design and architecture, her transition into the healthcare industry, and where her expertise in both has intersected. They also discuss the importance of user feedback in healthcare design, the challenges of creating staff spaces that promote wellness, and the need for evidence-based design at every level.

Listen HERE

In Network’s Designing for Health podcast feature is available on all major podcasting platforms, including: Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Google, iHeart, Pandora, Spotify, and more. Search for ‘In Network’ and subscribe for updates on future episodes. Like what you hear? Make sure to leave a 5-star rating and write a review to help others find the podcast.

Podcasts

Architecture Off-Centre Podcast: On Architecture + Medicine / Diana Anderson

February 8, 2024 / Dochitect / The Physician-Architect Model

Presentations

Title: On Architecture + Medicine / Diana Anderson
Podcast: Architecture Off-Centre Podcast
Date: February 8, 2024

Architecture Off-Centre highlights unconventional design practices and research projects, which reflect various emerging discourses within the design discipline and beyond. Hosted by architect Vaissnavi Shukl, the podcast features engaging conversations with exceptionally creative individuals, who, in their practice, have extrapolated the traditional fields of architecture, planning, landscape and urban design to unexplored frontiers.

For our final episode for this season, we speak to doctor and architect Diana Anderson, who has skillfully carved a unique career path for herself as a “dochitect” – by pioneering a collaborative, evidence-based model for approaching healthcare from the medicine and architecture fields simultaneously. Dr. Diana Anderson is a triple boarded professional – healthcare architect, internist, and a geriatrician. She is an Assistant Professor of Neurology at Boston University, and a recipient of an Alzheimer’s Association Clinician Scientist Fellowship. She is also a healthcare principal at Jacobs, contributing her thought leadership at the intersection of design and health.

Listen here:

Spotify / Apple / Stitcher / Youtube / Google / Gaana

Podcasts

MD Anderson Ethics Seminar: Research, Design & Ethics: A New Frontier Across Multiple Domains

December 11, 2023 / Dochitect / Health Design & Ethics

Presentations

Event: MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX – Ethics Seminar
Presenters: Stowe Teti, Diana Anderson, William Hercules, David Deemer
Date: December 11, 2023

Bioethics of Built Space

Decisions made in health care architecture have myriad effects on patients, families, and staff. Design is being employed increasingly often to alter specific behaviors, mediate the interactions of those within the health care spaces, and affect patient outcomes.

We propose that advances in design science and understanding of its powerful effects are now such that, in some instances, the built environment in health care should be considered analogous to a medical intervention. As with medical interventions, the intentional use of the built environment to effect perceptual and behavioral changes in patients or residents should be appropriately disclosed, as should harms caused by a building itself. But while some of these effects bear on individuals such that an informed consent process may be sufficient, others have population-level impacts that can persist for generations.

This presentation explores issues related to transparency, informed consent, surrogate authority, and describes the need for further empirical research into the implementation, efficacy, and ethics of these interventions.

Conference Presentations

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