Every element of a healthcare environment’s design influences how patients heal, how staff work and how efficiently the organization performs. Traditionally, healthcare design has relied mostly on a subjective feedback loop. But a novel approach is emerging that uses biometric data to pinpoint where stress reactions occur within facilities. This advancement has the potential to transform the healthcare design process.
To learn more about how biometric mapping technology can influence design, Becker’s Healthcare spoke with Reid Cimala, healthcare studio design leader at Gresham Smith.
From subjective feedback to evidence-based design
For decades, the tools for understanding how patients, visitors and staff experience clinical environments have been limited to surveys, anecdotes and word of mouth. Design decisions have also often come down to the personal preferences of organizational leaders.
Today, biometric data from wearable devices — worn by patients and staff — combined with geolocation mapping can help identify precisely where patients and employees experience stress reactions within facilities.
Wearable devices are extremely popular. Currently, almost 60% of American adults — more than 100 million people — report owning at least one wearable or connected health device. Many consumers like the data and insights these devices provide, and some clinicians are taking into consideration wearables data when making diagnostic, treatment and care personalization decisions.
Gresham Smith has developed MPATH: Empathic Insights, an app that is compatible with most modern wearables and uses biometric data to identify places or environments that cause a stress response.
These friction points represent opportunities to improve design, and they often stem from wayfinding challenges, operational patterns, environmental conditions and spatial configurations.
“For designers, this can transform subjective feedback into quantifiable, actionable feedback,” Mr. Cimala said. “It gives us a starting point to show where we can focus to have the greatest impact.”
Using data to guide design investments
Most organizations have a long wish list of potential design projects. The challenge is deciding which projects to pursue, which to table and where to invest. Biometric mapping can give health systems an objective perspective when making these tough choices.
“This provides a way to make sure that design decisions and investments are based on data, not the whim or preference of a leader or department head,” Mr. Cimala said. “It makes the conversation less subjective and provides a rationale for investments, like, ‘We’re doing this because it decreases patient anxiety.'”
Addressing privacy concerns
Any time data is gathered in healthcare, organizations must take privacy, security and ethics seriously. When collecting biometric and geolocation data in healthcare facilities to assess stress responses, it is important for the data to be deidentified and for all participants to provide consent.
Healthcare organizations already have deep experience collecting sensitive data for clinical and research purposes. This expertise can be applied to ensure biometric data collection for design is handled legally, ethically and in line with regulatory requirements.
Getting started takes a champion
As healthcare organizations contemplate tests or pilots involving gathering biometric and geolocation data, a key element is identifying a department-level champion who can provide ground-level leadership.
As organizations gather data, it is important to conduct both before-and-after studies to be able to rigorously assess the impact of any design changes.
Viewing design as a process
Design is not a one-time undertaking. All design decisions — including those that involve biometric mapping — are part of a continuous process. Data generates insights, and these insights influence design decisions. But even after a design project is completed, continuous refinement is necessary. Ongoing data gathering about stress reactions, comfort and other metrics will continue to show what is working and what can be further improved.
For all its reliance on sensors and data, the goal of biometric mapping remains — according to Mr. Cimala — a deeply human one: understanding how people actually feel in the spaces where they heal and work.
“This tool represents the next evolution of healthcare design,” Mr. Cimala said.
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