The 2024 Healthcare Design Expo & Conference, held Oct. 5-8 at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis, will offer a variety of keynote and breakout sessions on a range of topics.

Healthcare Design is previewing some of the upcoming educational sessions in a series of Q+As with speakers, sharing what they plan to discuss and some of the key takeaways they’ll share with attendees.

Session: Equity In Design Is Not A Quota

Speakers: Katelyn Cantelli, senior associate, senior interior designer at NBBJ (Boston); Dakota Jones, director of operations, senior diversity consultant at InOrder Business Development (Boston); Antwanette Lyons, manager, community health programs and advocacy at Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic, Seattle Children’s Hospital (Seattle); and Beatriz Gomez, senior project manager, real estate and facilities, planning & construction at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (Boston).

Harnessing the power of equitable design on healthcare projects

This session will bring together healthcare and design leaders to share their professional and personal experiences with creating equity through design. Participants will have the opportunity to hear about project-specific examples, such as The MGH Phillip and Susan Ragon Building, Odessa Brown Clinic, and Yellowhawk Tribal Health Center. Building on these experiences, the panelists will discuss if the industry is doing enough and what’s being missed in the discussion.

Here speaker Katelyn Cantelli of NBBJ talks about what equity looks like in healthcare design and how to foster engagement on project teams.

Healthcare Design: Define what equity through design looks like.

Katelyn Cantelli, NBBJ

Katelyn Cantelli (Photo credit: Ben Gebo)

Katelyn Cantelli: Equity in design starts with a lens of empathy; listening to the community and unique user groups that a space or building will serve. It also involves reaching beyond the groups of people that are regularly involved and finding the voices that might not always speak up.

And it stretches beyond what our initial thoughts around equity are often connected to, such as race and gender—it extends to language, neurodiversity, access, age, and beyond. Challenging design decisions every step of the way to make sure they uphold equitable framework and pivot when lessons are learned.

Embedding equity though design is also about understanding how architects document and specify construction materials. These decisions directly impact which consultants, vendors and contractors are involved. By consciously considering the business impacts of our design decisions and specifications, we can impact local and diverse businesses’ ability to participate on projects.

What are some strategies healthcare project teams can use to identify and address unconscious biases that may impact equity in their projects?

Addressing unconscious biases is not something we will solve overnight. It is a process of always checking in with ourselves and how we perceive others, a given situation, or a design challenge.

For the new Seattle Children’s Odessa Brown Clinic in Seattle, the NBBJ  and Seattle Children’s project team reframed the approach—we asked the community to bring pictures of what they would like to see in their clinic, rather than our team coming in as “experts” and showing them what the design should look like.

Throughout the design process, the design team constantly tried to think about how those with a different perspective, ability, or neurodiversity might perceive a design. The team showed up in a way that created a safe space for the community to connect.

The foundation of the design process engagement was grounded in trust, communication, and transparency—without these frameworks, equity isn’t possible. The team needed to gain the trust of the Odessa Brown community to make informed decisions to best serve their patients, caregivers, and staff.

What’s a recent project that illustrates equity-focused healthcare design? Share what stands out to you the most.

At the Massachusetts General Hospital’s (MGH) Phillip and Susan Ragon Building in Boston, equity-focused healthcare design started early in the process with engagement from community groups, patient and family advisory councils, and front-line staff and extended all the way through construction.

MGH also engaged Dakota Jones, a diversity consultant from InOrder Business, to advance equitable procurement practices throughout construction by focusing on creating opportunities for minority, women, and veteran-owned businesses. For example, the project team was able to source pavers from a local woman-owned business and portions of the lighting package from a local minority-owned business.

We learned valuable lessons from the process, for example, that seemingly small opportunities can translate to significant impact for small and diverse businesses. We also learned to consider our local supplier market when initially making design decisions.

How can design teams improve and expand their methods of community engagement to better address the needs of under-represented populations?

Multiple touchpoints throughout a project are key to ensuring all unique user groups have a voice.

But inclusivity must extend further to engage with the surrounding community and the populations that don’t always put themselves forward. It is our responsibility to seek out unheard voices.

Often this can come down to simple logistics, such as language barriers and making sure translation and visible signage is available. For Odessa Brown, the team engaged in a five-part process that included quarterly public meetings, monthly public meetings, individual stakeholder building meetings, social equity training, and community member meetings to ensure all were heard.

What’s a takeaway you hope attendees learn from your session?

Good design is about unifying beauty, function, and experience, but powerful design is about grounding these in an equitable, inclusive design approach that directly reflects user and community values, goals, and needs. We hope attendees will leave the session asking themselves: “What community groups can I stretch to engage with?” and “What other viewpoints are missing at the table?”

For news updates and information on the 2024 HCD Conference + Expo, click here.