I'm an architect with a background in cognitive science and a focus on healthcare. I'm interested in design, technology and research that makes life healthier and simpler.
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Study: Copper Surfaces Reduce Rate of HAIs in the ICU
With this established, I’d like to see EBD strategies end up dictating steampunk patient rooms.
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[EHRs] Designed with Patients in Mind
Great observations by Rajiv Leventhal. Even if the move to EHRs enables the a truly portable, patient-controlled medical record keeping system, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the information contained therein is going to be comprehensible.
I’m a big fan of the idea that showing patients their own medical data in an easily digestible way is the best way to change behaviour. Establishing cause and effect for one’s self is far more salient than being told what to do to be healthy; it’s the difference between reading the rules to baseball and actually going outside, throwing a ball around and swinging a bat.
If the move to a patient-centric system is going to meet it’s maximum potential, the ability to render the complex medical information it contains in a manner digestible for the layperson is key. Otherwise, the new, free EHR just becomes a tome that can only be deciphered by those in the know, and the technology involved would certainly allow us to do better than that.
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Great time at DesignMeets Healthcare
I had the pleasure of attending the DesignMeets Healthcare mixer on Wednesday evening and connecting with a great number of interesting people, all focused on the redesign of various aspects of the healthcare world. DesignMeets is a series of events, each meant to bring together people who are involved in one of the many different manifestations of the very broad design industry.
As speaker Bonnie Tang noted, when you’re interested in this specific combination of fields, it’s often difficult to tell people what you actually do. It was nice to meet more people who are meet people all in the same boat.
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Samara Treehouses at LEAF International 2013
I’m pleased to announce that I have been invited to present Farrow Partnership Architect’s Samara Treehouses at the 13th annual LEAF Forum in Berlin.
I’m quite looking forward to this; the treehouses have generated a fair amount of interest in the last few months, and at Farrow, we’re making steady progress in bringing them to life. There should be plenty to talk about come October; exciting stuff. Will post more news as it becomes available.
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Johns Hopkins researchers: ICU patients suffer from PTSD
We usually think of PTSD as something you develop if you go to war, are sexually assaulted or suffer a similar emotional trauma. Instead, it may be as common, or more common, in ICU patients as soldiers, but it’s something that many doctors — including psychiatrists — don’t fully appreciate
The world of a patient confined to critical care is small, and has now been shown to be traumatically frightening as well. That being the the case, I’d say it that it’s clear that the builders of that small world are the in the primary position to fight any trauma that might occur. That’s a serious responsibility.