I’m a bit delayed posting about Day 3 of the forum because I was catching up with work. While Day 1 and Day 2 were amazing, the speakers finished hard on day 3 of the UIA/PHG Healthcare Forum. I’ve learned so much from the packed day of speakers discussing what’s happening around the world.

Highlights of my day included:

• learning about telomeres from Dr. Elaine Chin
• looking at 4 different mental health service buildings Toronto
• listening to Ray Pentecost’s seminar on ‘so what?’ so what if we know exercise helps, what do we do with that?
• learning about ‘nightingale’ facilities
• seeing Saudi Arabia’s beautiful designs for new facilities across the country

The day didn’t really answer my questions from the days before, but left me with a number of questions that I’m not sure there are answers to. I’ve listed them below in no particular order:

• are we relying on technology to fix everything rather than taking ownership of our own health & choices?
• How do we gather architectural data?
• How do we evaluate a healthy bldg?
• How do we prepare everyday caregivers for complex home care?
• what will happen to all our healthcare infrastructure in 25-30 years when P3 & IO projects belong to the gov’t again?
• How do you foster collaboration amid territoriality & politics? How do you get people to collaborate when we want to keep our ideas to our chest?
• Just because we design for health (fitness) does that mean people will do it? How does design encourage people to take ownership of their lives?
• How healthy is healthy enough? How do we measure what is healthy enough?
• Who answers the questions on what healthcare costs?

Overall, I was informed we had 48 presentations over 3 days. No wonder my head hurt by the end. I think I’ll still have questions for a long time after this conference, they might not be answered until next year’s conference, in Durban. I guess I’ll just have to go to South Africa then. In the mean time, I’ll just have to wait until they post the proceedings online, or buy the book from the show. I bought last years proceedings, and I’m excited to dive in.

What do you think?

As you can see, this conference really got my wheels spinning. What questions do you have about the your healthcare system?