Zorana Matić, a graduate research assistant at the SimTigrate Design Lab, presented research on exam room design at the 49th Environmental Design Research Associate (EDRA) Conference in Oklahoma City in June.

This year’s conference topic was Social Equity by Design: Designing Connections through Community. The event brought together local, national, and international academics and practitioners to discuss their ideas on how democratic, inclusive, and equitable environmental design can be integrated into theory, research, teaching, and practice.

Matić, a Ph.D. candidate, presented work she did in collaboration with two SimTigrate colleagues, Lisa Lim, a Ph.D. candidate, and Maria Fernanda Wong, a master’s student. All are students in the Georgia Tech College of Design.

The presentation was titled, "Using Functional Scenario Analysis Method for Designing and Evaluating Exam Rooms."

The Functional Scenarios Method was developed by researchers at the SimTigrate Design Lab and has been used successfully to evaluate the design of ICUs, NICUs, biocontainment units, and exam rooms. The methodology is used for evaluating the impact of design decisions on the full range of users: care provider, patient, and partners.

Even though healthcare and way we deliver care have changed dramatically in past 30 years, exam rooms have remained largely unaltered.

At the conference Matić discussed the importance of design of exam rooms -- relatively small, but complex spaces that now have to accommodate an array of functions (consultation, education, exam, treatment) and how those new functions affect the exam room layout. The design of exam rooms impacts provider/patient relationships, patient privacy, provider work efficiency and provider safety.

She also demonstrated the application of the Functional Scenario method to quantify the spatial affordance of exam rooms to accommodate the needs of a range of users and presented some metrics for evaluation of the different layouts.

She discussed some of the major findings of the analysis:

• Exam rooms that locate the exam table in the area shielded from initial view of the corridor, but facing the door enabling a seated patient to see the provider entering the room, allow both privacy of the patient and improve the first encounter with the caregiver
• The internal layout of the exam room should be arranged to provide enough clearance for wheelchair maneuvering, and the exam table placed to enable access from both sides
• Care provider zones that are compact and near the entry optimize work efficiency of the provider and rapid exit to get additional information or in case of an emergency.
• Providers and ancillary nursing personnel increasingly want to share electronic information with patients while maintaining eye contact with them. Installing computer screens that can be swiveled to show patients or care partners (e.g. family members accompanying the patient to the exam), or providing a second shared screen, can increase information-sharing and patient engagement.

Matić also presented her ongoing research on development of the Atlanta BeltLine, and how we can use U.S. Census data to track the socio-economic changes in the affected neighborhoods.

The results of this study can be used to inform policymakers, organizations, and everyday residents to ensure equitable development and that benefits of the BeltLine are not disproportionately enjoyed by different city residents.

The 4-day conference brought hundreds of attendees from 20 different countries to Oklahoma City to share their ideas on wide range of topics: Housing Design and Policy, Healthcare, Placemaking, Emerging Design Tools (Data, Simulation and Virtual Design), Economic Development and Community Revitalization, Designing Accessible Environments, Education Design and Policy, Resilient Community Planning and Design, Participatory Design Strategies, and more.