DESIGN EvidEncE BasEd dEsign
dEfining EBd To better understand EBD’s relevance to the healthcare and design industry, let’s start with a definition of evidence-based design and talk about what it is and what it isn’t. First, what it isn’t. EBD is not
prescriptive. There is no one right answer in a system as complex as healthcare as no two healthcare organizations have exactly the same culture or deliver healthcare services in exactly the same way. The value of a talented, multi-disciplinary design team is their ability to filter what they see through a wide band of experiences and knowledge and make appropriate decisions based on multiple factors. This skill set, added to a talented design team, combined with a bold and visionary client is what creates great buildings. EBD is also not a static theory. It expands
and evolves as the body of research grows, in an ever changing and fluid body of knowledge. What evidence-based design is, is a process
- a well-defined, eight-step process in which professionals base design decisions about the built environment on the best available credible research to achieve the best possible outcomes. The eight steps are as follows: Define evidence-based goals and objectives Find sources for relevant evidence Critically interpret relevant evidence Create and innovate evidence-based design concepts Develop a hypothesis
Collect baseline performance measures Monitor implementation of design and construction Measure post-occupancy performance results. By its very nature, the EBD process
fosters a collaborative process, bringing in the voices of multiple stakeholders and consultants involved designing a facility, to ensure that a wide body of knowledge and a wide array of future possibilities are all taken into account when making design decisions. In today’s environment where healthcare delivery is changing rapidly, having access to a multi-disciplinary body of knowledge encourages a final product that can be flexible to changes that may be coming down the road in the not too distant future, but are not quite yet on the horizon. Though we have only just begun to build the body of knowledge that links design interventions with healthcare outcomes, there is already a great deal we do know. In a 2008 literature review conducted by Roger Ulrich and Craig Zimring in conjunction with The Center for Health Design, more than 1,200 studies were found that showed a direct relationship between health and economic outcomes and design strategies or environmental interventions. The table below summarizes a few of
these findings. In the three years since this study was published, the body of knowledge in this area has already grown significantly.
IN SHORT
■ Evidence Based Design (EBD) is becoming a buzz word in the field of healthcare design
■ Evidence-based design is an eight-step process on which professionals base design decisions to achieve the best possible outcome using the best available credible research about the environment being built
■ In two years, more than 1,000 designers, healthcare professionals and product manufacturers have passed the EDAC programme to become accredited and certified in the art of Evidence Based Design.
Hospital Build Issue 4 2011
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