A wrap-up of the 2025 PDC Summit

Keynote speaker Morris Morrison encouraged attendees to embrace discomfort to catalyze change.

Image courtesy of ASHE

The 2025 International Summit & Exhibition on Health Facility Planning, Design & Construction™ (PDC Summit™), which took place in Atlanta, March 9-12, was both a celebration of past work to improve the health care physical environment as well as a call to continue that work well into the future, embracing change along the way.

From keynote speakers who emphasized the role discomfort plays in growth and evolution, to the marking of the 10^th AIA/AAH & ASHE PDC Student Design Challenge™,  to concurrent sessions that showed how data and technology can help to inform better outcomes in planning, design and construction, this year’s conference drove home the point that building the next generation of health care facilities will require some novel approaches.

Day 1 of the conference kicked off with a keynote address from leadership expert and author Morris Morrison titled “Disrupt Yourself: Driving Change to Create Growth and Opportunity.” In his address, Morrison explained that disruption and commitment to improvement ­— whether personally or within an organization — are never convenient. Instead of waiting for perfection before deciding to align with change, Morrison encouraged attendees to embrace discomfort and take ownership of new opportunities.

Attendees also got to learn more about the Student Design Challenge, which brings together 20 students from five universities for a 48-hour design charette and competition. In a morning concurrent session, students from the winning and runner-up teams shared their design concepts of an expanded emergency department with dedicated spaces for behavioral health care. Then, during the day’s second general session, one of the students from this year’s competition joined current and past mentors and organizers of the event to discuss how its multidisciplinary nature sets it apart from other challenges, as well as the influence the Student Design Challenge has had on participants’ careers, such as helping them to land jobs in the field and define the focus of their future work.

Participants in the AIA/AAH & ASHE PDC Student Design Challenge™ bring their individual strengths to produce forward-thinking design concepts.

Image courtesy of ASHE

Day 2 of the conference continued to showcase excellence in evidence-based design and research with The Center for Health Design recognizing facilities and individuals with a number of awards, including the Health Environment Awards, Joseph G. Sprague New Investigator Award, Touchstone Awards and the Russ Coile Lifetime Achievement Award. The presentation was followed by a Q&A with Henry Domke, M.D., a physician and artist whose nature photography is used in health care facilities across the country to aid in patient healing. Domke, who was recognized with The Center’s Changemaker Award, discussed how art and design can help to shape wellness and how The Center’s research informs his artwork.

April Hansen, group president at Aya Healthcare, a travel nursing agency, led Tuesday afternoon’s general session with a keynote titled “Growth Game Plan: Turning Challenges into Opportunities.”

Hansen’s message zeroed in on the concept that “humans are hardwired for growth." However, because market improvements happen 80% faster today than they did 10 years ago, Hansen explained that pivoting to take advantage of those improvements can be difficult. She gives three steps to help professionals and organizations move quickly in changing environments:

1. Master the shift by focusing on action and intention.
2. Push through the “messy middle.”
3. Realize growth through reinvention.

In her keynote, Hansen emphasized that these three steps should be repeated again and again because growth is a journey and not a destination.

That message rang true in many of the day’s remaining sessions.

In the concurrent session “Using Smart Devices, Data, and AI to Automate Compliance,” panelists discussed how the continued embrace of artificial intelligence helped the facilities management department at Trinity Health of New England overcome staffing shortages by automating compliance documentation. The panelists relayed what to look for in automation technology and how to work with accrediting organization surveyors when presenting compliance documentation.

In another concurrent session, “Health Care’s High-Tech Hub: Centralized Labs with AI Capabilities and Robotics,” speakers told the story of Lee Health’s journey to design the “lab of the future.” With laboratory results comprising a large percentage of the information doctors use to form a diagnosis, the Florida-based Lee Health wanted to invest in advanced technology to aid in the clinical process. However, many of its older facilities came with limitations, prompting the health system to develop a lab relocation and consolidation strategy. The panelists walked through the planning and design of a clinical core laboratory, the advantages of consolidating services and how to build facilities that can adapt to future advances in technology.

Virginia Pankey sits with experts in behavioral health, design and construction to discuss the emergence of EmPATH and behavioral health emergency units.

Image courtesy of ASHE

On its final day of sessions, the PDC Summit opened with a timely discussion on behavioral health care and design. Virginia Pankey, AIA, EDAC, LEED AP, principal, behavioral health practice leader at HOK, moderated the morning’s general session, “Crisis to Calm: EmPATH and Behavioral Health Emergency Units Improving Emergency Throughput.”

The panelists discussed that the increase in behavioral health patients, which is only expected to grow, has led to the creation of new design solutions, such as emergency psychiatric assessment, treatment and healing (EmPATH) units and behavioral health emergency (BHE) units. The panelists defined the care models that work best in these types of spaces, as well as how the designs of the units themselves can become part of a patient’s treatment. Panelists cited research showing that through the combination of specialized building designs and patient care treatments, EmPATH and BEH units are effective in reducing the use of patient restraints and increasing throughput by reducing the number of patients who require an overnight stay.

The summit ended with a general session that brought all 10 of the conference’s Supporting Organizations onto one stage to discuss future collaboration.

Moderated by the American Society for Health Care Engineering’s Executive Director Lizzie Ortolano, the session also featured leaders from the American College of Healthcare Architects, American Academy of Healthcare Interior Designers, American Institute of Architects Academy of Architecture for Health, Association of periOperative Registered Nurses, Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, The Center for Health Design, Facility Guidelines Institute, International Association for Healthcare Security and Safety and the Nursing Institute for Healthcare Design.

The panelists discussed a litany of topics, such as evolving codes and standards, and artificial intelligence’s potential to revolutionize the health care planning, design and construction field. However, the session’s overarching theme, and perhaps the summit itself, can be summarized in the fact that because communities across the U.S. are in a constant state of change, the health care facilities serving those communities will need to change with them.

The 2026 PDC Summit will take place March 8-11 at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas. Sign up for updates on next year’s PDC Summit and learn about the upcoming Health Care Facilities Innovation Conference.