About

Evidence-based design is structured in part along the lines of the evidence-based movement, which began with Professor Archie Cochrane's book "Effectiveness and Efficiency: Random Reflections on Health Services". (1972) (SG1, pg. 28)

U.S. and U.K. studies examine effects of physical environment on human behavior and organizational culture.

An event that has been critical for the development of evidence-based design (EBD) was the start of the patient-centered care movement which began in the U.S. with the establishment of the nonprofit organization, Planetree.

Dr. Roger Ulrich publishes a pioneering study linking views of nature to patient outcomes.

The first Planetree model hospital site opens in San Francisco, CA.  The Planetree model of care is a patient-centered, holistic approach to healthcare, promoting mental, emotional, spiritual, social, and physical healing.

The Cochrane Collaboration, established in 1993, is an international network of people helping healthcare providers, policy makers, patients, their advocates and carers, make well-informed decisions about human health care by preparing, updating and promoting the accessibility of Cochrane Reviews published online.

The Center for Health Design (CHD) is founded in 1993 to initiate and fund research and to serve as a consortium for knowledge in many different fields that contribute to the creating healing environmentsthat improve outcomes for patients and staff. CHD's mission is to transform healthcare environments for a healthier, safer worl through design research, education, and advocacy.

CHD publishes the first literature review of EBD research, in which 84 relevant studies that linked the design of the built environment to outcomes were identified.

Institute of Medicine produces a landmark report on U.S. healthcare quality and safety. To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System, lays out a comprehensive strategy by which government, health care providers, industry, and consumers can reduce preventable medical errors.

CHD initiates the Pebble Project: a joint research effort between CHD and healthcare providers to cause a ripple effect in the industry by demonstrating how healthcare organizations use EBD to improve outcomes.

The term "evidence-based design" first appears in print in 2000. Colin Martin of the British medical jounal The Lancet writes, "Although the premise that physical environment affects well-being reflects common sense, evidence-based design is poised to emulate evidence-based medicine as a central tenet for healthcare in the 21st century."

Institute of Medicine publishes The Quality Chasm, its second landmark report on U.S. healthcare quality. It offers a set of performance expectations for the 21st century health care system, a set of 10 new rules to guide patient-clinician relationships, a suggested organizing framework to better align incentives inherent in payment and accountability with improvement in quality, and key steps to promote evidence-based practice and strengthen clinical information systems.

Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) approves revised standards for the prevention and control of health care-associated infections. The JCAHO 2005 Infection Control Standards address the areas of ambulatory care, behavioral healthcare, home care, hospital laboratory and long-term care organizations. The revised standards are designed to raise awareness that health care associated infections are a national concern that can be acquired within any care, treatment or service setting. Therefore, prevention represents one of the major safety initiatives that a health care organization can undertake.

The Center for Health Design publishes the "Role Of The Physical Environment In The Hospital Of The 21st Century" by Roger Ulrich, Craig Zimring, Xiaobo Quan, Anjali Joseph, and Ruchi Choudhary, which analyzes and catalogues more than 600 additional studies linking facility design to outcomes.

"The Business Case for Better Buildings" first appears in Frontiers of Health Services Management, Vol. 21, No. 1, Fall 2004, by Roger Ulrich and Craig Zimring. To illustrate the case, the researchers created Fable Hospital, which was a composite of recently built or redesigned healthcare facilities that have implemented facets of evidence-based design in their facilities.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation endows CHD to define a standardized evidence-based design process and create the EDAC program.

The 2006 edition of Guidelines for Design and Construction of Health Care Facilities includes suggestions for evidence-based design.

CHD and Vendome Group launch the Health Environments Research & Design (HERD) Journal, a peer-reviewed journal, further legitimizing the growing field of EBD.

The launch of CHD's Evidence-based Design Accreditation and Certification (EDAC) program is the first attempt to standardize the practice and process of EBD, and qualify an individual's knowledge of that process.

CHD publishes "Review Of The Research Literature On Evidence-Based Healthcare Design" by Ulrich, et. al. The complete paper was originally published in the spring 2008 issue of HERD (Health Environments Research and Design Journal), Vol. 1, No. 3.

The Center for Health Design defines evidence-based design as the process of basing decisions about the built environment on credible research to achieve the best possible outcomes.

EBD 2.0 Collaborative Research Workshop

After four years of development, grant funds from RWJF, and an educational partnership with Nurture by Steelcase, EDAC reaches its first milestone of certifying 100 industry individuals.

CHD’s Evidence-based Design Accreditation & Certification (EDAC) join forces with eCornell’s Healthcare Professional Certification program to announce a new partnership that extends the benefits of their respective programs. In searching for other ways to support professionals in healthcare facility design, CHD finds that eCornell’s curriculum enhances the EDAC learning experience; especially for those looking to gain a deeper understanding of how design is integrated into the overall healthcare operations.