Programme committee

John Cole, an architect and health design champion, is an honorary professor at the School of Planning, Architecture and Civil Engineering, Queen's University Belfast. John retired in June 2013 from the role of deputy secretary and chief estates officer DHSSPS (2008-2013), having previously acted as chief executive of the Health Estates Agency (2003-2008). During that period, he was responsible for the oversight and implementation of in excess of £3 billion of capital expenditure, covering the full range of health and social care facilities – from major regional centres of excellence and new acute hospitals, to community hospitals, mental health facilities and primary and community health buildings. John is currently procurement champion for RIBA and was IMPACT assessor in REF2014. John's involvement at Queen's University Belfast's School of Planning, Architecture and Civil Engineering will strengthen its expertise in healthcare design and procurement systems that support design quality across public-sector buildings. John's inaugural professorial lecture, 'Architecture: the art of healing', was given on 19 November 2014. From 2008 to 2012, John was chairman of the European Health Property Network, and in 2013, the Queen appointed him as a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) for his contribution to the development of health infrastructure.

Unni has been working at Sykehusbygg HF (Norwegian Hospital Construction Agency) since 2015. The job covers early planning of hospitals, as well as pre- and post-evaluation of hospitals and monitoring through the phases of a project. She is also responsible for developing evaluation tools and guidelines. Her previous work includes collaboration between hospital and primary health care services, developing specialist healthcare services for patients with chronic diseases, patient education programmes and patient participation. Unni has a background as a nurse and has a Master’s degree in Paedagogics where the thesis was a study of doctor–patient communication. She holds a PhD in Medicine. Her doctoral thesis was about the co-ordination of healthcare services and follow-up among elderly and chronically ill patients after hospital discharge.

Chetna Bhatia is Senior Assistant Director at National University Health Services (NUHS) Corporate Infrastructure Office. She is responsible for leading on Hospital Planning, Design & Research within the NUHS cluster, including all new developments of regional integrated Tengah General & Community Hospital and redevelopment of NUH Academic Medical Campus. She is an advocate for using design as a tool to optimize rising costs in healthcare and actively seeks opportunities to use evidence-based design research to improve patient experience and staff productivity, enhancing the quality of patient health outcomes. In the past 2 decades, Chetna was involved in the development of large-scale Public Hospitals in Singapore, which includes Ng Teng Fong General Hospital & Jurong Community Hospital, Sengkang General and Community Hospitals, and Woodland Health Campus.

Karin Imoberdorf Dipl Arch, MPH is a partner with Lead Consultants and the official representative for Switzerland within the Union of International Architects, Public Health Group.

Göran Lindahl PhD is an architect and Professor at Chalmers University of Technology in Goteborg, Sweden, Adjunct Associate Professor of Tampere University of Technology in Tampere, Finland, and visiting professor at Politecnico di Milano. He has 35 years’ experience working across academia and the AEC (architecture, engineering, construction) sector – among this, for example, eight years with the City of Gothenburg facilities planning department. Dr Lindahl is Director of the Centre for Healthcare Architecture (CVA) where he focuses on the planning of hospitals and other healthcare facilities through his understanding of healthcare processes and the strategies of the facility providers. Integrating approaches and transdisciplinary research is a strong aspect of his work. Previous projects include evaluations of usability of hospitals in Sweden and abroad, and educational aspects of clinical and non-clinical environments. He is currently involved with projects concerning design dialogues, maternity wards, health promotion in hospitals, real estate issues related to demographic changes, housing for the elderly and information management in healthcare construction projects. Dr Lindahl is author of 150+ publications, a keen reviewer and engaged in the development of knowledge and evidence relevant to practice.

Tina is a founding director of Lexica. She joined the new company in 2014 to establish a Healthcare Strategy + Planning team bringing her 20 years’ experience in major health infrastructure projects in the UK and internationally. Prior to joining Lexica, Tina was a shareholder in a niche management consultancy, Healthcare Partnering, and before that she was Partner Lead for Healthcare Planning at EC Harris and a shareholder/director of RKW Healthcare Strategists for 12 years. An architect by background, Tina is widely recognised as one of the UK’s leading healthcare planners. She leads the largest team of dedicated healthcare planners in the UK. As Managing Director, Tina leads the long-term strategic growth of the business in health and life sciences and ensures Lexica develops as a client-focused consultancy. Tina is also one of the founding directors of the Healthcare Planning Academy, which provides a professional development resource to practitioners to support the continuous improvement of industry standards.

Ganesh is an intensive care consultant with a specialist interest in leadership, service design and development. He is Honorary secretary and forthcoming President-elect of the Intensive Care Society.

Trained in facility management and business economics, Liesbeth van Heel joined Erasmus MC in 1992. She worked in the facilities management department, was an administrator for the department of paediatric surgery and served on the the Executive Board's staff, before joining the hospital's redevelopment project management team in 2001. After years of working as the university hospital real estate professional, leading a small team of experts (PMO), her focus shifted to co-ordinating the alignment of the various strategic programmes within Erasmus MC toward a safe relocation in May 2018 in the new hospital building, with suitable work processes, logistics and IT support. She is a Board member of the European Health Property Network (EuHPN). She co-coordinated the scientific programme evaluation of Our New Erasmus MC (PE-ONE, between 2017 and 2023), which focused on infection prevention, experiences with wards with 100 per cent single rooms and stakeholder engagement. Currently, she combines her PhD work with her role as Senior advisor within the Strategy Team of Erasmus MC's Real Estate Directorate.

Christine has more than 30 years of experience in healthcare, including many executive and leadership roles. Christine brings system-wide expertise and skills, including strategy/visioning, health services planning, functional programming, lean thinking and digi-physical visioning, as well as stakeholder engagement at all levels and input into healthcare planning. Christine is Co-chair of the CSA Z8005 (Digital infrastructure and digital technologies in healthcare facilities). She also sits as an associate member of the CSA Health Care Facilities Technical Committee (Z257 TC). Alongside her technical expertise, Christine is a passionate advocate for developing the next generation of healthcare leaders. She is a Mentor in Residence and a sessional lecturer at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Medicine and Innovation, a mentor for the Women’s Infrastructure Network and Founding president of the Canadian Women’s Circle of Healthcare (CWCH).

Dr. Sozener practices as clinical professor in the Emergency Department and Emergency Critical Care Center at the University of Michigan. With fellowship training in the care of neurologically injured patients, he also serves as a member of the stroke and telestroke teams. He leads multiple departmental and institutional initiatives; all aimed at improving operational efficiency and quality clinical care. He is the co-director of the Michigan Comprehensive Stroke Program and associate director of the Michigan Telestroke Program. In addition to rich hospital operations experience, his passion is in lean facility design and the intersection of healthcare engineering, operations, technology and patient safety. He is one of a very small number of practicing physicians internationally with EDAC credentials. As co-principal of Emerging Healthcare Design, the consulting firm he co-founded, Cemal utilizes his extensive clinical and lean operational expertise to optimize care delivery models and design facilities to enhance efficiency, staff satisfaction and improve clinical care.

Sasha has spent his career working in the NHS, initially in dentistry and maxillofacial surgery. He has spent 20 years at executive level in hospital systems and has a particular interest in the development of integrated systems. He now works for the NHS Horizons team supporting a wide range of change programmes. His current focus is on increasing the role of physical activity in health, working on a commission to support Sport England’s ‘Uniting the Movement’ strategy.

Rhonda has evaluated effectiveness and performance for healthcare and hospitals for 40 years as a health planner, health facility planner and health economist. The relationship between investment and patient outcomes, clinical change, sustainability, and innovation is her particular interest. Improving the cost effectiveness of hospital capital programmes relative to patient demand and clinical standards was the focus of her 2020 Ph.D. She has been involved in over 40 hospital and health service development projects and evaluated health investment programs in 18 OECD countries. Rhonda has been invited to speak on her research at 25 international conferences and her research has been published and quoted in several national reviews of health and hospitals. Prior to consulting in the private sector, her experience was in senior management roles in health service evaluation and planning for the Australian Health, Finance, state and territory health departments. Her research and experience challenge outmoded political models for hospital capital investment. Rather she recommends investment in continuous improvement for the patient, the treatment and for health system effectiveness. She has modelled a new method for appropriate capital resourcing for all hospitals that is patient-centred, values-based, supportive of innovation and enables patient access to appropriate care in effective and efficient hospitals.

Nirit Pilosof, PhD, is an architect and researcher exploring the intersection of healthcare, technology and architecture. She is a Faculty member at the Coller School of Management, Tel Aviv University, and an Associate of Cambridge Judge Business School (CJBS) at the University of Cambridge in the UK. She is also Head of research in healthcare transformation at Sheba Medical Center, a Fellow of Cambridge Digital Innovation (CDI) at the University of Cambridge, and the Executive Member of Israel at the International Union of Architects (UIA) Public Health Group. Dr Pilosof holds a PhD from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, a Post-Professional MArch from McGill University, and an Evidence-Based Design Accreditation and Certification (EDAC) from the Center for Health Design in the USA. She gained experience in the design process of major medical facilities as a project manager at leading architecture firms in Israel and Canada and won international awards, including the prestigious American Institute of Architects (AIA) Academy of Architects for Health Award, the American Hospital Association (AHA) graduate fellowship, the McGill graduate fellowship and the Azrieli Foundation fellowship.

Tom Best MBE, MD is Clinical director / Intensivist at King’s College Hospital, UK.

David Allison FAIA, FACHA is an Alumni distinguished professor and has served as the Director of Graduate Studies in Architecture + Health [A+H] at Clemson University since 1990. His teaching, research and scholarship involve the study of relationships between health, healthcare and the built environment. The A+H programme at Clemson is nationally recognised for its focused curriculum and emphasis on design excellence within the discipline of healthcare architecture. It is committed to the integration of innovative design with academic scholarship and research in healthcare environments and healthy community planning and design, and it has won numerous national and international programme and student awards for its work under Professor Allison’s direction. Professor Allison is also a licensed architect in South and North Carolina as well as a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (AIA). He is also a board-certified, founding member and Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Architects (ACHA), currently serves on the ACHA Board of Regents, and received its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019. He is the founder of the Architecture for Health Educators Summit, held annually as part of the joint AIA/AAH and ACHA Summer Leadership Summit. He is also a co-founder of an annual AIA Academy of Architecture for Health (AAH) South Atlantic Regional Conference. He was selected in 2007 as one of 'Twenty Making a Difference' nationally by Healthcare Design Magazine and identified again in 2009, 2010 and 2012 by a national poll conducted by the magazine as “one of the most influential people in healthcare design”. Design Intelligence Magazine named him one of the nation's 30 Most Admired Design Educators in 2013-14 and again in 2019. He was also recognised by the Center for Health Design as its 2019 Changemaker.

Cristiana Caira, MArch, is Partner and Board director at White Arkitekter, Artistic professor of healthcare architecture at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, member of the Board at the European Health Property Network, and member of the Programme Committee for the European Healthcare Design Congress. Cristiana has 25 years of experience in planning complex healthcare environments in Scandinavia and internationally. Focused on increasing collaboration between practice, research and education, Cristiana has led major White Arkitekter healthcare projects, including the award-winning Södra Älvsborg Hospital Psychiatric Clinic, the Queen Silvia Children Hospital in Gothenburg and a large-scale extension of Karlstad Hospital. Her latest international project is the award-winning extension for the Panzi Hospital in Congo, in collaboration with the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dr Denis Mukwege. Cristiana is currently Healthcare design lead architect within the expert international team appointed to design Cambridge Children’s Hospital. Embedding research alongside clinical expertise in physical and mental child health, the hospital will be a state-of-the-art hospital designed to take care of the whole child.

Sunand Prasad is a principal at Perkins&Will. While designing across several sectors, he has been consistently engaged in healthcare and sustainability for four decades. At the core of his architectural practice, alongside interdisciplinary collaboration, Sunand holds a passionate belief that expertise and aesthetic judgement are most effective in creating truly successful environments when they are catalysed by the everyday experience of people. Sunand has been active in the wider built environment industry, particularly championing low-carbon, regenerative design, and until recently, as chair of the UK Green Building Council. He was President of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) from 2007 to 2009, campaigning for action on climate change. He was founding member of the UK Government’s Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment; a London Mayor’s design advocate; a trustee of the Centre for Cities; and Chair of the trustees of Article 25, the humanitarian architecture charity. He currently chairs the Editorial Board of the Journal of Architecture and the External Advisory Board of TRUUD, a major research project on the fundamental links between health and urban development. He has written widely on architecture, sustainability and healthcare design, such as the book 'Changing Hospital Architecture'.