Healthcare Design - January/February 2020 - 26

GREAT

For me, it was never about growing into a
large studio to build billings; it was about
attracting the most insightful designers to
work with the most enlightened clients. Because of that, we've been able to attract the
right work in three ways: as a studio to design interiors alone or as adjunct to a larger,
multidisciplined team; as a lab to develop vision and subsequent program outcomes for
projects that align a client's project vision;
and, most recently, as a developer of product
that offers design teams solutions for unmet
needs that time- and cost-sensitive projects
can no longer afford to customize.

HEALTHCARE DESIGN: SHARE
A LITTLE ABOUT YOUR

PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND
A N D W H AT D R E W Y O U T O A
CAREER IN DESIGN.

Rosalyn Cama: I received a Bachelor
of Science degree in interior design and
textiles from the University of Connecticut. Soon thereafter, I was employed by
Yale-New Haven Hospital to work as an
on-staff designer in the planning and construction of a replacement bed tower. It
was not a planned career path; I happened
upon this opportunity as I was preparing
to apply for a Master in Architecture degree (which was clearly forfeited, as this
six-year position taught me how a hospital is designed and built from the client's
vantage point). It was this position that
shaped my passion to design environments where design provides an unintended consequence. These spaces were
expected to function but not necessarily
improve the care delivery experience.
HOW DID YOU BECOME
INTERESTED IN PRODUCT
DESIGN, SPECIFICALLY?

I learned early in my career that if something was not readily available in the marketplace, then I could go outside of my
sector for a solution, like Scandinavian
wooden furniture sources, or collaborate
with a local workroom and customize a solution. We had great upholstery workrooms
just outside the New York marketplace, and
in the late '80s Cama Inc.custom-designed
a sprung sleep banquette for a children's
hospital. It was then that I started a file on
missing products that I sought for my projects that could not be customized-my file
name was "Admitted Designs."

DESCRIBE THE FIRST TIME YOU
WORKED ON A HEALTHCARE
P R O D U C T. W H A T D I D Y O U
L E A R N F R O M T H AT P R O C E S S /
EXPERIENCE?

ROSALYN CAMA FASID, NCIDQ, EDAC
Position: president, Cama Inc.; CEO, Cama Collection LLC
Location: New Haven, Conn.
Years working in design: 44
Years in current role: 36 at Cama; 5 at Cama Collection
Product categories: seating, textiles, and privacy
screening
Market segments: healthcare

TELL US ABOUT YOUR CURRENT
ROLE.

I like to say Cama Inc. is a powerful design
think tank with a social consciousness.

J A N U A R Y/ F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0

H C D M A G A Z IH
NC
ED
. CMOAMG A Z I N E . C O M

In a formalized product development process, that journey started with Fabio Delmestri at IOA Healthcare Furniture. Fabio is
an industrial designer, and I had a product
design idea (sitting in my Admitted Design
file for close to 30 years). My insecurity in
this process was overcome by the work my
staff and I conducted to clearly articulate our
"why"-we wanted to answer a repeated request we heard from mothers who wanted to
get into a patient bed with their children. In a
Lean-inspired kaizen process, we asked ourselves "why?" several times, ultimately identifying that the action of touch can turn the
threat switch off in our brains. We wanted
to allow a person to hold a loved one's hand,
even as that person is tethered to a headwall
in a large and clumsy hospital bed.
We wrote a white paper and developed a
slide deck to sell the concept to IOA. They,
too, lead from a big heart, and Fabio said,
"Let's do it!" After two years of developing
and refining, the Cama Bed-Chair was received with great acclaim and tears of appreciation. What I've learned is to get our question right and know that we're not solving a
problem with a "what" or a "how" but rather

http://www.HCDMAGAZINE.COM

Healthcare Design - January/February 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Healthcare Design - January/February 2020