Idea
Cloud

Sometimes, our inspiration comes from within

As designers of health care environments, like the health care industry itself, we look to the outside for ideas designing solutions: hospitality for comfortable environments, aviation for safety protocols, manufacturing for process.

For all the academic and evidence-based influences that help guide those solutions, sometimes it’s our own experiences and those of our family and friends that inspire the experiences we help create in spaces.

Our coworker, Al McAllister, and his wife gave birth to a daughter two years ago who was born with a rare genetic disease, Pfeiffer’s Syndrome. Only one in 100,000 people are affected by the genetic disorder, and his daughter, Kate, has already had 34 surgeries to try to alleviate the effects of the disorder, which causes premature fusion of skull bones that prevents the skull from growing normally. (Learn more about Pfeiffer Syndrome here.)

Kate the Great shows us how resilient children can be, even in what adults would define as some of the worst experiences in life, and how, in the end, they still deserve the opportunity to be a child. And Al and Stacy remind us that when a child goes into the hospital, treatment must focus on the whole family, not only the patient.

Kate, thank you for reminding us why we do what we do and why we must always strive to do it better. We wouldn’t want any less for the people who are close to us.

Visit Kate’s CaringBridge site to read more about her incredible life.