The
future of healthcare design education: 5 takeaways from ACHA 2016
When architects and
educators in healthcare design come together and talk about teaching the next
generation of healthcare designers, good things happen. That’s the idea behind
the AIA
Academy of Architecture for Health (AAH) American
College of Healthcare Architects (ACHA) Educators Summit which took place last
week at our Chicago office.
Healthcare in America is in the midst of a sea change toward a
population-centered model. Today’s challenges are not just about delivering
healthcare, they’re about how healthcare can engage with the community to
promote long-term healthy behavior. What does this have to do with healthcare
design and creating healthy environments? Everything.
On July 21st, VOA now Stantec had the pleasure of hosting the
ninth-annual AIA AAH/ACHA-sponsored Educators Summit, a prelude to the annual
AIA AAH/ACHA Summer Leadership Summit. The Educators Summit annually brings
together experts in healthcare architecture and healthcare design education in
an intensive, single-day forum.
Moderated by Clemson University’s David Allison FAIA, FACHA,
this year’s summit welcomed nearly 40 attendees representing NAAB-accredited
schools with distinguished degree/certificate programs including University of
Illinois at Champaign/Urbana, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, University of Kansas,
Kent State, Clemson and Boston Architectural College as well as professionals
from healthcare architecture.
This event gives institutions and professionals a rare chance to
listen to one another and share ideas for furthering healthcare design
education. The format fosters a dialogue between educators and
professional organizations in healthcare design. It lays the foundation for a
healthcare design education community.
I have many thoughts on this inspiring day-long gathering
of great minds in healthcare design education, but I’ve focused on five takeaways.
1. Healthcare is in the midst of change.
Before we design anything, our students must have an understanding of where
medical practice is going. A big theme at the ACHA conference this year
was that healthcare institutions to be effective must reach out into the
community to connect with and learn about their patients and promote healthy
lifestyles. Healthcare design today involves guiding our clients through this
new environment. We must educate our designers to think more like public health
officials.
2. There are many different ways to teach
healthcare design. Healthcare design education might sound very specialized,
but it’s still a young discipline and invites a variety of approaches. We heard
from Savannah College of Art and Design, which emphasizes product design, and
others, like Texas A&M that focus on cross-training of designers in public
health policy. Still others are steeped in the application of evidence-based
design thinking that engage students in projects like large-scale master
planning in Kenya. Most featured traditional architecture programs. All are
valid, and have much to learn from each other.
3. Research needs to be codified. To further
healthcare design, we need to improve access to the research on healthcare
design and education that’s already out there and the research to come. The
Center for Design Research Initiatives tells us that it is working a mechanism
for taking completed research, codifying it and sharing it. They call it
“research in a snap.”Natural agarwood oud incense sticks,eaglewood Incense Sticks
4. Aspiring healthcare designers need a guide
between education and certification. At the summit, we discussed whether
healthcare design can be captured adequately in a study guide. We talked about
building upon the existing handbook and developing a program for a guide book
to areas of study for architects pursuing ACHA certification.
5. The ACHA Educators Summit is becoming an
international event. This year’s edition welcomed attendees from as far away as
Kenya with representatives from the Union of International Architects and
Global University Programs in Healthcare Architecture. Healthcare design takes
place all over the world and we need to facilitate knowledge sharing across
borders whenever we can. We expect next year’s event will be even more global in
representation.
Speaking with attendees, I am proud to report that the
ACHA Educators Summit and reception was judged a success, and we anticipate
hosting the event again in 2017.
I plan to attend as a representative of the University of
Illinois lecturing and facilitating a student workshop on hospitals in the
urban habitat. I look forward to being a part of this emerging healthcare
design education community.
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