Three new eClassroom long-distance learning programs, now available on the Web, round out the presentations based on sessions presented at the “Women, Children, and Healthcare: Designing Facilities for Distinctive Needs” conference, sponsored by the AIA Academy of Architecture for Health, November 19–22, 2003, in Denver. Each of the three new courses—one on children’s care in an uncertain world, one a case study of a children’s hospital, and one taking a futurist view of health care—offers one health-safety-welfare continuing-education credit.

American Children: Inspiration and Hope in a Challenging World
(AIA course number 17)
This course points out that the new age of terrorism may cause diversion of basic resources from children’s safety-net programs to massive mobilization around disaster preparedness. Advocates for children must be ever more vigilant, the instructor claims, to ensure that resources for children are not undermined. Every new positive development for children needs to be amplified and replicated to the maximum extent possible, he says. For instance, the new Children’s Hospital at Montefiore exemplifies how a facility designed for excellent pediatric health care can open doors to education, inspiration, and discovery for all children.

The course instructor, Irwin Redlener, MD, is the associate dean of Columbia University School of Public Health. He directs Columbia’s National Center on Disaster Preparedness and a special initiative on public health advocacy. Dr. Redlener also is president and co-founder of The Children’s Health Fund, a philanthropic initiative to develop and support health-care programs for medically underserved children.

This course offers one HSW LU credit. For more information or to register, visit the eClassroom site.

University of Chicago Comer Children’s Hospital
(AIA course number 18)
Currently under construction, and scheduled for completion in October 2004, the University of Chicago Comer Children’s Hospital presents a case study of its planning and design process, idea development, and the lessons learned along the way. The project included wide participation from families, user groups, and university leadership and was the recipient of an extraordinary $21 million gift from philanthropist Gary Comer of Lands End, Inc.

The learning objectives of this course are to explore:

• A project overview: See one academic medical center’s approach to the planning process for a new children’s hospital.
• The organizational culture: Learn how the culture of an organization and its community can influence the planning process, and how to capitalize on it.
• Mining ideas: Learn the challenges and rewards of wide participation and how to extract core ideas from the “brain trust” of participants.
• Design exploration and evolution: Learn about the evolution of design ideas, the status of the work in progress, and lessons learned along the way.

The course instructors are:

• Kimberly Stanley, AIA, who has focused on the design of health facilities for nearly 20 years, working nationally and internationally. She is a principal of Stanley Beaman & Sears, Inc., an award-winning architecture and interior design firm based in Atlanta.
• Margaret Tobin, facility planner and building administrator, University of Chicago Comer Children’s Hospital, who has facilitated the planning process of the hospital.

This course offers one HSW LU credit. For more information or to register, visit the eClassroom site.

Awaken the Future: New Possibilities in Women’s and Children’s Health (AIA course number 21)
“Think. Experience. Imagine. New futures await us,” says the course instructor. “They flow in part from dramatic external trends. But even more importantly, these futures emerge from our imagination and creativity.” This session explores the future of women’s and children’s health, considering the impact of technology, innovation, child potentiation, prolongevity, and the experience economy. It also examines how to work with donor-investors to bring possibilities into reality. The goals of the course are to:

• Consider the implications for architects in the context of this artful weaving of ideas, story, music, and myth.
• Describe a minimum of five trends influencing health care for women and children.
• List one implication of each of these trends for architects.
• Give three examples of possible new services.
• Provide an example of an emerging technology and describe its impact.
• Describe how organizations are attracting philanthropic dollars from donor-investors.

The course’s instructor, Leanne Kaiser Carlson, is a futurist for the Kaiser Consulting Network. She is also a founder of the Kaiser Institute, an organization enabling leaders to learn in new ways and develop skills for the future in areas such as venture philanthropy, intuition, and executive renewal. She is a faculty member of the Estes Park Institute, teacher in two fellowship programs, and frequent writer.

This course offers one HSW LU credit. For more information or to register, visit the eClassroom site.

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