Sherry Ahrentzen, PhD
Arizona State University
2006 RFP Recipient

ACTIONABLE KNOWLEDGE:
A RESEARCH SYNTHESIS PROJECT FOR AFFORDABLE HOUSING DESIGN PRACTICE

Actionable knowledge for a profession reflects an integrated and comprehensive—yet always evolving—body of systematically-derived research that addresses use-inspired issues and practice, and that is used by practitioners and policy makers.

Evidence-based health practice means integrating the best available clinical evidence from systematic research with individual clinical expertise.  If we take our own selfish selves as examples, when we visit a physician we want to know that she is current on the latest medical and health research when considering our ailments.  But we do not want her to simply treat us as a standard textbook case.  We want her to consider our own individual situations, history, circumstances.  We want her to work with us in deciding when best to apply medical research findings to our particular situation, and when not.  A physician’s expertise is reflected in the thoughtful identification and compassionate understanding of individual patients’ predicaments, situations and preferences in making clinical decisions about their care.  Indeed it is that expertise that determines whether the research evidence should be applied to the individual patient at all and, if so, how it should be integrated into a clinical decision.

The crux is how to foster an evidence-seeking design culture.  That is a question I do not directly answer here. Here I attempt to address how to start building a foundation for evidence-informed practice within architecture and ADHP in general.

Evidence-based design practices within thehealthcare industry have made significant strides in the last decade. This is a different animal from the housing industry.  But evidence-informed design does have its appeal to business leaders and public officials. 

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