Contract - October 2011 - (Page 48)

feature advancements made in evidence-based healthcare design Rosalyn Cama, an expert on evidence-based healthcare design and a former ASID national president, points to gains in designing with evidence By Rosalyn Cama, FASID, EDAC About five years ago, I met with John Czarnecki in his previous capacity as acquisitions editor at John Wiley & Sons to discuss writing a book about evidence-based design. At that time, evidencebased design was still relatively vague. Healthcare administrators were beginning to understand that they needed to ask for evidence-based design services and responding design firms knew they had to deliver, but few understood what evidence-based design was, let alone how to incorporate it into practice. The field was ripe for an explanation about the evidence-based design methodology. In Evidence-Based Healthcare Design (Wiley), which was published in early 2009, I wrote that the naysayers expected this process would stifle creativity, the lack of baseline evidence could not fuel its adoption, and the underlying fear of the unknown would manifest itself as a prescriptive concept that would self-destruct. Time has proven the naysayers wrong, in fact those practicing this methodology have produced enough data to develop the business cases necessary to show the benefits of particular design interventions’ first costs revealing their health, organizational, and economic return on investment. This has proven to be a powerful tool for health regulators and hospital boards of directors. Today, the skepticism toward evidence-based healthcare design has dissipated as familiarity has grown into widespread adoption. The concerns are less about justifying its validity and more about how it can assist in streamlining and improving efficient and effective models within organizations that are being driven toward the operational leanness of government-sanctioned health reform. A body of knowledge To that end, the evidence-based design methodology that is outlined in my book, as well as Evidence-Based Design for Multiple Building Types (Wiley, 2009) by David Watkins and Kirk Hamilton (see interview with Watkins, page 104), The Center for Health Design’s EDAC study guides, and in other subsequent publications have been studied and commonly adopted by many healthcare project design teams. Today, nearly 800 people from many disciplines have earned The Center for Health Design’s Evidence-Based Design Accreditation and Certification (EDAC) designation. Nurture by Steelcase launched a nationwide training program to support the EDAC test. Anjali Joseph, Ph.D., director of research at The Center for Health Design, says, “The development of the EDAC program has made great strides in standardizing definitions and terms, and making the evidence-based design process accessible to a larger group of people. It has helped to clarify and strengthen the need for evidence-based design in healthcare design and provides a path forward for those interested.” As interest grows, so does the evidence-based design body of knowledge. And as more design teams contribute to this body of knowledge, (continued on page 50) 48 contract october 2011 www.contractdesign.com Book cover courtesy of John Wiley & Sons http://www.contractdesign.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Contract - October 2011

Contract - October 2011
Contents
Editorial
Industry news
Product briefs: healthcare
Product focus: caregivers need care, too
Product focus: above + below
Product focus: glass for health
Advancements made in evidence-based healthcare design
The power of design
Less clinical, more hospitable
Beautifully lean
Raising the bar
New life
Urban sanctuary
The 2011 healthcare environment awards
Designers select: healthcare products
Ad index
Perspectives

Contract - October 2011