Anne DiNardo

In this series, Healthcare Design asks leading healthcare design professionals, firms, and owners to tell us what’s got their attention and share some ideas on the subject.

Working with Chris O’Brien Lifehouse (Camperdown, Australia), HDR Rice Daubney sought to create a comprehensive nonprofit cancer center in Sydney that would fulfill the vision of the late Chris O’Brien, a professor and medical oncologist who died of a malignant head tumor in 2009.

One of the reasons I love covering this industry is that the people that I get to interview—architects, interior designers, planners, and owners—are so passionate about their work and their efforts to use design to help others.

Thankfully that work isn’t reserved to hometowns and native countries, and is increasingly crossing borders, especially to developing parts of the globe where needs are vast and complicated.

If all goes well, five years from now, Myanmar will serve as an example of how a network of high-tech, locally driven clinics can improve health and medical care to underserved populations throughout the world.

The effort is being driven by Care For Peace, a Novato, Calif.-based nonprofit, and it’s starting with a country of more than 50 million people in southeast Asia.

A stable power supply and a temperature-controlled environment are essential to maintaining a data center. In a study conducted by the Ponemon Institute, “2013 Study on Data Center Outages,” 85 percent of 584 survey participants reported that their organization’s data centers experienced a loss of primary utility power in the past 24 months. Of that 85 percent, more than 90 percent reported their organizations had an unplanned outage.

A significant amount of information is being generated in healthcare these days, as part of its transition to a technology-driven industry. All that material—electronic health records (EHRs), test results, emails, private communications, and research—needs to be stored safely and securely, and many organizations are turning to data centers to deliver.

Basset Healthcare Network  (Cooperstown, N.Y.) faced an outdated medical facility that could no longer accommodate patient demand and clinic growth for residents of Cobleskill and Schoharie County, N.Y. An inefficient layout and inconvenient location compounded the need for a new facility.  

Data centers are on the minds of a lot of healthcare organizations these days for a host of reasons. For one, there’s been a massive boom in the last decade of data—electronic medical records (EMRs), test results, emails, private communications, and research—and the need to store all that material safely and securely.

There are plenty of examples of well-designed and inspiring healthcare projects in our industry today. From beautiful patient rooms with spa-like bathrooms to work spaces the truly support and reinvigorate the doctors, nurses, and staff members putting in those long, hard hours.

So I love it when that same level of detail and importance of design shows up in some unexpected places—like campus support buildings.

Most renovation projects face challenges with bringing outdated facilities up to code or creating more modern and inviting environments. But when Parkview Noble Therapy sought to turn a former funeral home into a new physical rehabilitation center, it faced an even tougher obstacle: changing community perception.

An engaged group of healthcare leaders, architects, and industry professionals gathered last week in Chicago for the annual Summer Leadership Summit presented by the American College of Healthcare Architects and The American Institute of Architects Academy of Architecture for Health.

The design of Mercy Health’s new West Hospital (Cincinnati) features a large horizontal footprint—and an enormous roof. Since a driving principle in the design was connecting the facility with the surrounding landscape (using such elements as expansive windows, ample daylighting, and complementary color palettes), the design team also decided to think about how the roof could play a part in creating that setting.