Healthcare Design - December 2016 - 48

fac e

Time

C H A L L E N G E S T H AT K E E P M E U P
AT N I G H T
"PAT I E N T P R I VA C Y .
We want to have all our
medical information at
our fingertips, and yet we
don't have secure servers
in our homes or we use
mobile devices, which
can be hacked, to access
the information. We
want wearable devices
and tele/home medicine
to monitor metrics and
personal data, but we
don't know how to take
this information from

all organizations and
make it applicable big
data to help researchers
create analytics and cure
illnesses. Also, we hear
so much about the cost
of healthcare and the
financial models and viability of major providers.
There's a lot of pressure
to cut cost, but I worry
that this happens at the
expense of patient care
and staff retention."

MELINDA LIN

Senior medical planner,
DGA

F AV O R I T E . . .

W H AT D R E W M E T O A C A R E E R I N
MEDICAL PLANNING
"The opportunity to speak with front-line users and truly
understand the journeys of caregivers and their patients
and support staff. As a planner you're constantly
learning new things-technology, procedures, equipment. We don't live in stagnant times; we have to keep
learning, adapting, and being innovative in our thought
process."

MELINDA LIN HAS spent her 17-year-

career learning the ins and outs of
medical and equipment planning
from both sides of the industry,
working for a number of architecture firms as
well as healthcare organizations, including Kaiser Permanente and Stanford Health Care. Less
than a year ago, she went back to her firm roots,
joining DGA's San Francisco office. Lin calls
medical planners "future-forward thinkers by
nature," and says the most important skills for
the job are being an active listener, taking the
time to ask the right questions, and walking a user's space to "live in their shoes." "We see things
differently, speak a different language ... we have
to keep drilling down to get the answers we need
for a successful design." It's a lesson she learned
early on during her first healthcare project: A
110,000-square-foot medical office building for
a developer that had never done a medical office core and shell. "Don't assume anything," she
says. "Provide information on medical planning
and construction to those who are not familiar
with the work, because you don't know what you
don't know." -Anne DiNardo

THREE ITEMS ON MY DESK

1 a rock from Mendenhall

Glacier in Alaska

2 smiling ceramic face

(It was supposed
to be a gift for my
sister and, well,
she never got it...)

3 driftwood from

BIGGEST PET PEEVE ON A
PROJECT

1 passionate 2 inventive 3 reliable

"Not observing in real-time with a client or user to know
their space and daily interactions with others."

LIN WAS A PART OF THE TRANSITION STRATEGY TEAM FOR
STANFORD'S NEUROS CIENCE HEALTH CENTER IN PALO ALTO, CALIF.

DECEMBER 2016

"Working on a modern quilt, testing out a new modern
quilt pattern, or in the kitchen making a lavish meal for
family and friends. My husband, John, and I tag-team
well together and our latest go-to meal is potato gnocchi
with meat ragu. We try to have family dinner with our
closest friends once a month and they're all told if they
don't come and help make the gnocchi, they won't be
eating!"

Little Moose Lake, Wyo.

THREE WORDS MY COWORKERS
WOULD USE TO DESCRIBE ME

48

OUTSIDE THE OFFICE, YOU'LL
L I K E LY F I N D M E

HCDMAGAZINE.COM

©BRU CE DAMONTE (STANFORD)

VA C AT I O N S P O T
"Anywhere that requires a
passport and is a minimum
of three time zones away."
LINE FROM A MOVIE
"I hate to admit this, but it's
'Just keep swimming,' from
Dory in 'Finding Nemo.'"
UNUSUAL OBJECTS
IN MY HOUSE "I have
sand/dirt/rocks/nature
things from all over the world in small apothecary-like
jars from my own travels and from family and friends:
pebbles with sea glass from the Amalfi Coast in Italy,
salt from the Dead Sea, beautiful garden snail shells
from Versailles in France, granite from Beartooth Pass in
Montana, sand from a golf sand pit and a golf tee from
Scotland, and many others."
WAY TO UNWIND AFTER A LONG DAY "I love being greeted by the dogs (Turley and Saxum, two German
shorthaired pointers, and Lucy, an English bulldog) and
having an adult beverage of some sort."
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Healthcare Design - December 2016

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