#12 - Hybrid Physicians, Architecture, and Healthcare Design with Dr. Diana Anderson

Today’s guest is an accomplished, multi-talented clinician that made me think a lot about the design of the buildings of where I work after our conversation.

Dr. Diana Anderson is a healthcare architect and a board-certified internist. As a “dochitect”, Dr. Anderson combines educational and professional experience in both medicine and architecture. She has worked on hospital design projects globally and is widely published in both architectural and medical journals, books, and the popular press. She is a frequent speaker about the impacts of healthcare design on patient outcomes and staff satisfaction. And as the co-founder of the Clinicians for Design group, she seeks to inspire clinicians to improve the design of their environments and systems.

Listen to her ideas and I am sure you’ll look at the place you work, the clinic or hospital, a little bit differently. I know I do.

Show Notes

(00:01:35): Becoming a doctor and an architect is a unique combination. And you’ve mentioned the term “the hybrid clinician” in your other work and interviews. How did you find this life path?
(00:06:15): Did you get a lot of push back and how did you deal with it
(00:07:52): Are the ways you think about problems in medicine and architecture similar or different?
(00:10:41): In different hospital spaces, are there any similar or different themes that you like or that frustrate you?
(00:12:16): Who is the end-user of a hospital? Is it the patients, the clinicians, both?
(00:15:20): How do we get design thinking to get incorporated in medicine beyond just talking about
(00:17:29): How do we deal with the challenge that design decisions in hospitals are difficult to overcome since these spaces are often built to last decades?
(00:19:24): Is Covid-19 and the pandemic making you explore how we can design health care spaces to be quickly adaptable?
(00:25:34): For those of us with elderly parents at home, how would you advise that we redesign space for them?
(00:27:33): How did you find yourself interested in geriatrics?
(00:32:43): What endpoints would you want to measure if you could design a dementia village?
(00:34:55): What does the future of healthcare design look like?
(00:38:27): Tell us about your work looking into ICU design.
(00:42:49): How do you get in the zone to create? What is your creative process
(00:45:49): How do you design for innovation after COVID?
(00:49:12): Can you tell us about Clinicians for Design and it’s mission?
(00:50:59): How do you get your ideas off the ground? How do you execute?
(00:53:52): What are some of your future goals?
(00:55:23): What are some of your favorite buildings in the world?
(00:58:56): Where can people find you?