Boosting innovation through collaboration

At the intersection of health care and architecture lies a myriad of challenges, opportunities and rewards. In the planning, design and operation of health care environments, we recognize our collective power — and responsibility — to positively impact the health, wellness and lives of millions every day.

The challenges are daunting: labor shortages, high construction costs, shifting requirements and regulations, a generation of retiring leaders and reduced availability of capital project funding despite a growing need. Nevertheless, over the last few decades, we’ve seen our field seize opportunities to drive a multitude of advances: raising the bar on the standards, norms and expectations of health care building projects; technological advances that have allowed for new building models and modalities; and innovative new design concepts that support better patient care and outcomes.

The common denominator has been collaboration. At The Center for Health Design, we’ve initiated, participated in and witnessed the power of collaboration, making us firm believers in the “big tent” approach to creating sustainable change.

We have a history of bringing together multidisciplinary talent and diverse resources to move the needle in our field and support our community. Hundreds of professionals worked with The Center to create the Safety Risk Assessment Tool and Functional Program Process Guide. Dozens of volunteers have worked for decades on our environmental standards council to effect change to the Facility Guidelines Institute’s (FGI’s) Guidelines for Design and Construction.

Multiple organizations —­ including the American Society for Health Care Engineering, AIA Academy of Architecture for Health, FGI and Nursing Institute for Healthcare Design — partner with us to fund and maintain our open-access Knowledge Repository of more than 6,000 design research citations. And hundreds more share their experiences and ideas as presenters and panelists in the free virtual webinars and workshops we hold throughout the year.

As the popular adage and a recent International Summit & Exhibition on Health Facility Planning, Design & Construction (PDC Summit) keynoter explained, we’ve gotten further by going together.

Our field’s current challenges offer an opportunity for health care design’s next big moment. The solutions will require greater levels of collaboration and innovation than we’ve relied on in the past to achieve lasting change. We have a generational opportunity to mobilize toward common goals and pool the resources, expertise and knowledge of the numerous disciplines involved in designing, building and operating modern health care environments.

An inclusive, multidisciplinary approach to problem-solving is more likely to produce creative solutions. More importantly, by including a diverse set of perspectives more likely to illuminate blind spots, this approach creates solutions that stand the test of time.

Nowhere was that more obvious than at the 2024 PDC Summit in San Diego, where a dozen professional associations and organizations — from engineering, architecture, interior design and nursing to infection prevention, safety, security and guidelines — came together to pledge their support for collaborative efforts to shape and improve our field’s future.

We’re looking forward to putting the power of collaboration on display at the 2025 PDC Summit in Atlanta, where The Center will be rolling out 24 unique educational sessions — twice the number we presented at the 2024 event — showcasing this interdisciplinary innovation and problem-solving approach.

Titled “Research, Design and Outcomes,” this PDC learning track features new research, case studies and innovations to inform planning and design and to drive improvements in health, safety and business outcomes. Many of these sessions include hands-on and interactive learning to heighten creativity and deliver actionable strategies and ideas.

The Center will also be hosting a new general session awards presentation at the 2025 PDC Summit featuring this year’s Healthcare Environment and Touchstone Award recipients — projects and products celebrated not only for their designs but also for their commitment to using research and evidence-based design. The 2025 Changemaker awardee, selected by The Center’s Board of Directors, will also share their insights and unique career journey in an interview-style conversation.

If you missed the debut of our learning track in 2024 or haven’t attended the PDC Summit before, this is the year to change that — register now. Our sessions add a new dimension to the PDC Summit designed to enhance engagement among health care facility owners, executives, design professionals, clinicians, solution providers and colleagues across all disciplines involved in planning, designing, building and operating the health care physical environment.

You will find inspiration and solutions to your challenges and, even more valuably, opportunities to be a part of a larger multidisciplinary conversation to help generate solutions that will elevate the field and create long-term, sustainable change at this critical time. I hope to see you there. 

About this column

“From The Center” is by the leadership of The Center for Health Design and appears in alternating issues of Health Facilities Management magazine.

Debra Levin, Hon. FASID, EDAC, president and chief executive officer, The Center for Health Design.