Latin American group’s multi-purpose role explained

Latin American architects, Fábio Bitencourt, Liliana Font, Luciano Monza, and Briseyda Reséndiz, and engineer and current IFHE President, Daniela Pedrini, discuss the establishment of a ‘Continuously Functioning Thematic Network’ of representatives from healthcare engineering and healthcare architecture from across Latin America – drawn both from IFHE organisations in the region, and other bodies that share common interests in this field. The aim will be to obtain and share knowledge, experience, and expertise in areas ranging from education and training, to event organisation, research and scientific studies, sustainability in healthcare, and ethics and compliance, that can also be fed back to the IFHE.

The International Federation of Healthcare Engineering (IFHE) is a global non-profit institution whose members are the national associations of healthcare architecture and engineering. It aims to promote the safe, efficient, accessible, and environmentally sustainable planning, design, and management of buildings and facilities that provide healthcare services. In some regions of the world, on a continent-by-continent basis, there are regional groups linked to IFHE, with a particular current focus on Europe and Latin America. The IFHE Latin America Regional Group provides sectoral representation for the region, and comprises existing Latin associations in the countries of the American continent linked to the International Federation of Healthcare Engineering. However, the Group also includes representatives of countries that are not IFHE members, but who nevertheless share technical and scientific interests with those with formal links to the Federation

The proposal to establish a Continuously Functioning Thematic Network involving Latin American organisations with performance in healthcare architecture and engineering was put forward by the IFHE Latin America Regional Group on 26 January 2021 during the 26th IFHE Congress, which was held ‘virtually’ in Rome earlier this year. Networks can be understood as organisational arrangements of actions and services with different degrees of activity, but with a single, integrative, central connection. In this case, the central connection revolves around themes related to the technical aspects of design, management, teaching, and research on environments, buildings, and technologies connected with healthcare provision.