Take 5 With Cactus’ Noah Waxman

Noah Waxman (Headshot: Willian Matiola, Cactus)
In this series, Healthcare Design asks leading healthcare design professionals, firms, and owners to tell us what has their attention and share their ideas on the subject.
Noah Waxman is CEO and cofounder of Cactus, a New York-based healthcare design firm. Here, he shares his thoughts on using design to deliver more personalized and human-centric healthcare experiences.
- Rethinking access through design
Today, usually only the lucky few—or those with the most means—get access to the frontiers of healthcare science and innovation before they proliferate to the larger population. But by embracing “trickle up” innovation—tackling the most basic and essential healthcare challenges experienced by the larger population with a design lens— architectural and experience designers can solve foundational access problems while also unlocking new care models that scale across diverse populations and settings.
Rethinking the layout and programming of spaces in conjunction with service offerings can result in healthcare spaces that deliver more flexibility to patients. For example, envision a healthcare clinic that includes dedicated and staffed childcare spaces within the architectural program, making it easier for single and working parents to find an appointment time in the already complex landscape of healthcare scheduling.
Alternatively, the design of a modular, digitally enabled telehealth booth would allow health systems to deploy their services within grocery stores or laundry mats, facilitating care delivery within existing community spaces.
- Designing for human connection
Healthcare is a relationship business—the relationship between care team members and patients, and the relationship care team members have with each other. But the design of digital tools such as electronic health record terminals, point-of-care devices, or clinical workstations in healthcare facilities often intermediates human-to-human relationships.
Physical spaces should be planned and designed to better support digital tools, integrating technology within the built environment so that it supports healthcare professionals and patients instead of creating a barrier between them.
For example, the spatial layout and furniture selection within an exam room can prioritize face-to-face interaction. Similarly, careful placement of recessed digital screens and artificial intelligence note-capture solutions can take the burden of data entry off the physician during a clinical interaction, further improving the human-to-human interaction.
- Rethinking primary care environments
Almost all aspects of our lives, from our media consumption to our fashion choices, have become personalized and microtargeted, yet healthcare remains one-size-fits-all. As we age, our health interests and needs evolve significantly, creating an opportunity for health systems to design service offerings, spaces, and digital products for more specific demographics and populations.
One-third of 18–24-year-olds report symptoms indicating they have experienced a common mental health problem. In response, primary care facilities can be designed to include mental health support in addition to physical health check-ups, with architectural and interior design cues that support a therapeutic and wellness-focused setting.
On the other end of the generational spectrum, aging populations benefit from a primary care model that offers more in-home care delivery or specialized primary care spaces that are architecturally and digitally designed to support a population with limited mobility, vision, and hearing.
- Delivering more holistic care settings
The healthcare landscape is abuzz with conversations around the potential of value-based care to transform the care system, shifting the focus to preventative health at population scale. The wave of architectural, digital, and product innovations aimed at integrating lifestyle medicine into traditional clinical models is encouraging, as it signals a shift toward investing in prevention alongside treatment.
For example, maternal health centers are being reimagined to weave together obstetrics and gynecology services for expectant mothers with wellness offerings and community spaces, extending care journeys beyond pregnancy itself.
- Fighting provider burnout with design
Healthcare professionals face long hours, understaffing, and sicker populations within constrained business units that push them to do more with less. To help create healthcare spaces that ease the burdens of healthcare professionals, design teams can study clinicians’ workflows and physical movements throughout the care floor and design interiors and interactions that streamline operations, automate repetitive tasks, and redirect focus from technology to the patient.
Natural language processing, which allows computers to understand, interpret, and manipulate human language, can be built into rooms, allowing the building to actively support clinicians.
Another opportunity is to create staff spaces that foster connection and community. Break rooms, for instance, should feel like an inviting social hub where staff can gather and recharge. By incorporating dynamic lighting and premium finishes, these spaces can prioritize comfort for those who spend 12-hour shifts on the clinical floor.
Want to share your Top 5? Contact Managing Editor Tracey Walker at [email protected] for submission instructions.