Nov 11, 2019
Dr. Diana Anderson, a licensed and board-certified healthcare architect and licensed Internist, on the growing role of the physician in healthcare design, and why she invented the term “Dochitect.” She describes, “Even when I’m on rounds now in medicine, I’m constantly looking up at the lighting, looking at the ceiling tiles, and counting the square footage of a room, or really considering how the design is impacting what I’m doing.” This and more on how healthcare design and architecture can penetrate the more superficial layers of design to impact end users more deeply by understanding the physician’s role in the medical space.
Dr. Anderson has worked on hospital design projects within the United States, Canada and Australia, specializing in medical planning of inpatient units, specifically intensive care unit environments. As a "dochitect", Dr. Anderson combines educational and professional experience in both medicine and architecture, in order to truly understand what is involved in medical planning and working within the healthcare environment. Learn more about Diana Anderson and her work by visiting http://www.dochitect.com/. Learn more about Clinicians for Design by visiting: https://www.cliniciansfordesign.com/
This podcast is brought to you by the award-winning Porcelanosa—a global innovator in tile, kitchen and bath products. Learn more about Porcelanosa by visiting http://porcelanosa.com.
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Let’s play a game. I want you to
count up every time you’ve had furniture delivered on a hospital or
healthcare project, and the product fell short of your
expectations. Do that on one hand. Now, on the other hand, I want
you to count up how many times you’ve had to compromise the
integrity of a project because you’ve been limited by furniture
options and budget. Now, that was kind of a trick question because
I know all of you need more than two hands to count up these
situations. Here’s a solution: Stance Healthcare. Stance
specializes in furniture for the hospital and healthcare setting,
and they pride themselves on working with designers who need to
modify furniture for a variety of end users. Here’s a great
example. At the request of a designer, Stance modified their
popular Legend chair to create a closed arm panel and they made the
seat depth adjustable for different sized residents in an assisted
living facility. How freaking cool is that? Start exploring now
at: http://stancehealthcare.com/.
Additional support for this podcast comes from our industry partners:
- The Center For Health Design
- The Nursing Institute for Healthcare Design and
Learn more about how the Center for Health Design can support your firm by visiting: http://healthdesign.org.
Connect to a community interested in supporting clinician involvement in design and construction of the built environment by visiting The Nursing Institute for Healthcare Design at https://www.nursingihd.com/.
In part one of Cheryl’s conversation today with Dr. Diana Anderson, you will learn:
- The story of how Diana started out as an architect and then went to medical school, and how this hybrid career led her to invent the word, “Dochitect”.
- Diana’s “aha” moment in design came when she visited Paimio Sanatorium -- built in the early 1930s in Finland and designed by Alvar Aalto.
- Diana poses the question, “Why not use the same uplifting colors as sometimes seen in pediatric hospital design in nursing home or other hospitals that need it so desperately?”
- Why the placement of windows along corridors in hospitals is extremely effective in visitors not feeling lost.
- How to bridge the gap between the designers who design hospital spaces and the end users of the space.
- What is the group Clinicians for Design and why did Diana co-found it?
- Why the medical profession is reaching out to other disciplines to help solve clinical questions.
- Is there a need for design guidelines in Geriatric care?
- How can we use the environment in Geriatric care to aid in quality of life and reduce some of the symptoms that might occur?
- What is Universal Design and how can it be applied in healthcare design?
- What does nursing home reform look like and what is the Dementia Village?
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