This AAH Update is the fourth and final issue of the year, and it shows our progress from past versions. Not only does it look different, but we are gradually increasing the breadth and depth of content in the newsletter. This reflects a broader goal adopted within our Strategic Plan last year; to deliver more knowledge more effectively to Academy members.
Here are a few ways we are progressing: First, we are networking more effectively with 20 other committees in the Academy to announce events and application deadlines in a timely way. Second, we are networking with partner organizations to share relevant knowledge, news and opportunities from those sources, so that we are a ‘one-stop-shop’ for happenings in our health-focused OAC industry. These partners include the American Society of Healthcare Engineering, the Center for Health Design, the Nursing Institute for Healthcare Design, Healthcare Design, Facility Guidelines Institute, the American College of Healthcare Architects, and others. Third, you will start to see more sharing of news and trends from healthcare delivery organizations (our clients’ organizations), as our ‘news team’ gathers relevant knowledge from them to deliver to us. You will see not only ever richer content in the Update, but also in other platforms—our website, and social media (LinkedIn and Twitter). As we continue to progress in our mission to deliver more knowledge, please let me know how we can do it better by emailing me at aah@aia.org.
Since I am reflecting on improvements at AAH, I would like to share a few other exciting advancements:
Our Case Studies program is a new resource this year, to provide in-depth information on high-quality projects. Each Case Study contains ten pages of project data, images, plans, and conceptual underpinnings. Currently, it contains seven projects, and there are 27 more currently in production. We are aiming for a large quantity over time, so members can use the library for benchmarking precedents for a given project type. See a description and link on the front page of our website under the 'announcements' section at aia.org/aah.
We are close to launching the Regional & International Advisory Group, made up of local component health care committees, to advise AAH leaders how best to serve our members to complement the local programs. We hope this will better connect local and national programs to improve both, and to be our ‘conscience’ to continually advise our leaders.
This year, we have created another type of advisory, the Reinvention Council. This group is composed of both health industry leaders and emerging professional healthcare architects, to meet regularly to see our future in the health industry and the architecture to support it. They will periodically meet with AAH leaders to share their findings. We will gain immensely from this look-ahead to enable us to obtain and share knowledge we all need to meet the future.
Our Board recently met for an all-day session the day before the Healthcare Design Conference to review progress on these and many other programs underway, including conferences, education, visibility, codes, outreach, and communications groups. This ambitious board and our 110 active volunteers have accomplished amazing things this year and plan more progress next year—stay tuned. We are poised to deliver our two main services with increasing quality: education and networking. Some of these program committees need additional volunteers to be able to do more. There are many different ways to advance your own interests through participation in a committee. If you are interested in exploring joining a committee that fits you, please don’t hesitate to contact me at aah@aia.org.
One final point to make: I have thoroughly enjoyed being your AAH President this year. It has rewarded me immensely and reminded me how valuable it is to network with our colleagues—through committee involvement, conferences, and associating with partner organizations. I look forward to working closely with your 2018 President, Vince Della Donna, next year. I will continue on the AAH Board next year working to make AAH increasingly relevant and valuable.
Sincerely,
Tom Clark, FAIA, EDAC
AAH President 2017