Healthcare Design - November 2015 - 28

C THE CENTER | 11.15
Passing the gavel
As The Center for Health Design's long-time board of directors chairperson
steps down, there's much for the organization and industry to prepare for
By Rosalyn Cama
For the last 14 years, I've had the incredible opportunity to serve as chairperson of The Center
for Health Design's board of directors, sitting
with an amazing table of thought leaders who
have changed the way you and I practice design
and the way most Americans experience healthcare delivery. This experience, which will come
to an end in November as my final term closes,
has allowed me to get to know and admire many
of those who have rallied around the common
goal of improving healthcare outcomes through
thoughtfully designed healthcare facilities.
Together, we developed the built environment in
which healthcare is now administered.
Under the leadership of CEO Debra Levin,
The Center has been able to mature a nonprofit
to serve so many in allied fields. It took a group
brain with a very high incentive quotient to know
how to pose the right questions to start this
movement. By disseminating the analysis of a
small body of knowledge, we incited a shift in
healthcare design toward an evidence-based
methodology. It was in that period that we articulated the need to build a case for better buildings
to deliver quality care as defined by the Institute
of Medicine. This allowed The Center to align
with so many of those designing and building the
next generation of care facilities.
The Pebble Project was next born as a way
to coalesce best practices and launch muchneeded innovation. It was through participants'
incredible efforts to research, design, and then
share valuable lessons learned that these Pebble
Projects have moved a very important conversation forward. Many who participated in the
program have been mobilized to build a more robust research agenda that's led to a formidable
body of knowledge. HERD: Health Environments
Research & Design Journal emerged because of
the rich content that continues to be produced,
and the Evidence-based Design Accreditation
and Certification (EDAC) program, now 2,000
strong, has fueled a generation of well-informed
professionals poised to raise the bar. Finally,
the Built Environment Network was launched
to engage facility leaders to stay at the edge of
emerging design and management trends.
Over these formative years, I've had the
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opportunity to write many articles and share
with you the top-of-mind issues considered
at The Center, here in this column. I'll miss
the discourse that these articles have incited;
however, I welcome the opportunity to continue
our conversations through my blog at www.
camaincorporated.com.

As the field is poised to shift to a
performance-based delivery model, we'll
all need to be at the top of our game.
As I pass the gavel (and remain a member
of the board), The Center is ready to launch
tools that will make the best evidence-based
design practitioners even smarter. The Affiliate+ program will ready us all in the launch of
the "next best" design trends, as the delivery
of health and well-being reaches beyond the
hospital campus. As the field is poised to shift
to a performance-based delivery model, we'll all
need to be at the top of our game.
My successor will be announced at the
Healthcare Design Expo & Conference, Nov. 1417, in Washington, D.C. I hope to see you there
and thank you personally for your friendship and
support. We still have much work to do, but I'm
incredibly grateful and a much better person for
having had this experience. HCD
Rosalyn Cama, FASID, EDAC, is president and
principal interior designer of Cama Inc., in New
Haven, Conn. She can be reached at rcama@
camainc.com.

Rosalyn Cama

http://www.camaincorporated.com http://www.camaincorporated.com http://www.camaincorporated.com http://www.HCDmagazine.com

Healthcare Design - November 2015

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