Book Review: “Evidence-Based Healthcare Design”
In the past 12 months, we’ve seen several new books on evidence-based design hit the shelves. The latest is a great new reference titled Evidence-Based Healthcare Design (John Wiley & Sons in association with the American Society of Interior Designers) by healthcare designer Rosalyn Cama, FASID, President of CAMA Inc., and a board member of The Center for Health Design.
Cama’s book is a step-by-step guide of how to implement an evidence-based design process. Instead of an eight-step process outlined in the EDAC (Evidence-based Design Accreditation & Certification) program’s study guides, she condenses it to four – and still manages to cover all the bases, and then some.
As a practicing evidence-based healthcare designer who has helped to shape the field, Cama has served on many interdisciplinary project teams, which as she explains in the book, is an “important concept imbedded in evidence-based design methodology.”
In addition to a foreword by Georgia Tech professor Craig Zimring, Ph.D., chapters are sprinkled with (and in some cases, comprised almost fully of) essays by those involved in the case studies she cites, as well as other industry experts – a veritable “Who’s Who” of healthcare design. So, in that sense, this book is not only Cama’s voice, but the voices of many others as well.
Each chapter begins with a relevant quote from a famous person and ends with a checklist that summarizes the key “take aways.” There are also plenty of engaging black and white images – charts, drawings, photographs, as well as a group of color photos to add visual interest.
The book is an easy read with lots of good information and resources – another “must have” addition to the evidence-based practitioner’s library.
May 29th, 2009 at 9:43 am
Sara: Thank you. The reason I took on the challenge of writing this book is because many design teams and healthcare facility teams say they practice EBD but settle into their comfort zones and deliver projects as usual. It is less about starting over and reinventing a design process but more about starting smarter with project thinking organized around committed hypotheses. It is my hope that this book will spark a stronger evidence-based movement and help to deliver needed transformation to the healthcare industry.
Roz