Daniela Sorana, an Italian architect, and the holder of a PhD in architecture technology, argues that, with university hospitals playing an increasing role in the development of innovative clinical practice and biomedical innovation.
As well as high quality training provision and technology transfer, those planning new such facilities, or designing extensions to existing establishments, will need to think ever harder about how best to configure the layout and adjacencies so as to maximise opportunities for sharing of knowledge and collaboration between clinicians, scientists, researchers, and trainees.
There is no question that university hospitals are thriving on the international stage, and that the range of courses and teaching they offer continues to expand, resulting in them maintaining a prominent role in society, with a number seeing major construction and restoration either on the way, or about to begin. It is also increasingly evident that many hospitals are moving towards integrating research and medical training to maintain their competitive edge. One of the core issues to consider here is the degree of integration needed between clinical, teaching, and research activities for the best interaction between research and medical practice. A research programme carried out at the Department of Architectural Technology and Design of the Faculty of Architecture of Florence (IT) defined cultural approaches, criteria, and trends, in the form of guidelines for the concept and design of innovative university hospitals. It was co-funded by Italy’s Ministry of Education, University and Research as a “Research Programme of National Interest” (PRIN). The guidelines developed are characterised by the importance of integration and harmonisation between resources and caregiving aspects and factors relating to educational training, research, and technology transfer. The “integration” of the various functions is unanimously identified as a key feature of the university hospital of excellence. The guidelines propose changes in the infrastructural system of functional areas of the traditional hospital. Such alterations anticipate both new types of space – devoted to the integration of functions such as training, research, and transfer – and the regeneration of relationships with care spaces.
The meaning of integration
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