Healthcare Design - September 2022 - 28

Researcher
DEBORAH WINGLER, PHD
Associate director of applied research, principal,
HKS Inc. (Dallas)
I
N HER ROLE at HKS Inc., Deborah Wingler
collaborates with research and design
teams to develop and implement research
initiatives that drive innovation and
achieve meaningful and measurable impact
across the fi rm's global healthcare practice.
Wingler's research focus, specifi cally, lies in improving
the patient and staff experience through
studies that use real-time data collection techniques
to gain insight into how patients and staff
respond to high-stress healthcare environments.
Within the last two years, she's conducted research
on topics such as Clinic 20XX, investigating
provider and patient perceptions of future
clinic design and the impact of telehealth in the
outpatient environment. She's also contributed
to FleXX-Contagion, laying the groundwork for
post-pandemic preparedness and future fl exibility
for healthcare environments as well as pandemic
resiliency through one of the largest studies
to date evaluating eff ective facility pandemic
response across 15 military treatment facilities.
Meanwhile, Wingler's implemented applied
research on a range of projects for clients including
UW Health; University of Iowa Healthcare;
Baylor, Scott, & White; Baptist Health; Eastern
Integrated Health Campus; and CVS. Her eff orts
include the development of tools for conducting
research in practice as well as mentoring and
training of practitioners and colleagues.
Wingler has also been instrumental in building
HKS' applied research services by embedding
research within the design practice at
multiple scales, including evidence-based approaches
to documenting design intent, and
28
SEP TEMBER 2022
UW Health Eastpark Medical Center
conducting current state analysis, scenariobased
simulations, and occupancy evaluations
to document and measure the impact of design
decisions. Specifi cally, Wingler's work with UW
Health involved conducting mock-up simulations,
which led to key findings that influenced
both space and cost, such as reconfiguring the
clinic module to support a more efficient and
effective patient and staff flow and removing
unnecessary millwork, which resulted in an
estimated $250,000 reduction in costs. Findings
from the simulations are helping to support
ongoing transition planning eff orts, as well,
through the development and implementation
HCDMAGAZINE.COM
of new operational processes that were identifi
ed during the simulations.
Currently, she's working on multiple large research
projects where she leads both research
and experience strategy, including a 2,000-bed
acute care hospital, community hospital, and
outpatient facility in Singapore. As her nomination
states: " Taking an evidence-based approach
to design thinking, human-centered design, and
outcome-based design, Wingler exemplifi es how
we can balance deep-dive research and actionable
applied research to inform the design of
healthcare facilities that contribute to improved
health outcomes. "
HKS, INC.
http://www.HCDMAGAZINE.COM
Healthcare Design - September 2022

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