SimTigrate staff host a seminar in the lab.

About Us:
Where Healthcare and Design Meet

About Us: Where Healthcare and Design Meet

The SimTigrate Design Lab is an interdisciplinary research lab using evidence-based design (EBD) to shape the future of healthcare. We improve healthcare outcomes by measuring, quantifying, and documenting the impacts of the built environment in the healthcare process. From lighting and sleep to infection prevention, we study healthcare spaces and provide evidence-based guidelines that will impact the entire field of healthcare design.

We use EBD as a future-focused conceptual model. Moving beyond literature review, we identify points of leverage and emerging strategies in healthcare spaces that could provide designers innovative ways to improve healthcare outcomes.

We bring together individuals in diverse fields, including architecture, industrial design, systems engineering, mechanical engineering, computer science, nursing, medicine, and psychology. Our lab is dynamic and innovative. We do and communicate research and are focused on teaching students and researchers how to do the work and think critically about the design process.

Where Students Are Valued Team Members

Student involvement is a central element of SimTigrate’s approach to research. Zorana Matić, a Ph.D. student, is leading the current research with Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Special Care Unit (CHOA SCU) on building biocontainment units for the treatment of pediatric patients with lethal, contagious diseases.

Maria Wong Sala, who graduated from Georgia Tech in 2019 with a master’s in Human Computer Interaction, was a primary author on a paper recently printed in a CDC supplement. Zimring has noted the achievements of former students around the country. SimTigrate has helped nurture some of the most effective people in the field, and they in turn are training students and engaging the world. “We are celebrating our impact,” he said.

Our Beginnings

SimTigrate – combining concepts of simulation and integration – grew out of the Healthy Environments Research Group (HERG). Established around 2000, HERG was a multidisciplinary group of faculty and students at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University dedicated to improving healthcare outcomes through the design of cities and buildings.

The SimTigrate Design Lab was launched in late 2011 to focus more directly on health and healthcare and to create a lab structure focused around researchers, including Georgia Tech staff and students. Zimring and Associate Director Jennifer DuBose were instrumental in creating SimTigrate.

The core SimTigrate staff.

Who We Are

While the SimTigrate Design Lab team draws on many disciplines throughout Georgia Tech, we have a core team of faculty and graduate researchers. We are led by Zimring, also a professor in the School of Architecture, and DuBose, a principal research associate. We also have a team of undergraduate and grad students who perform an integral role in our research.

Meet the Team

See Our Reach Beyond the Lab

Craig Zimring teaches his healthcare design class.

Our Academic Role

We teach classes each semester and make special presentations.
Skyline across city of potential partners.

Our Network

Our collaborators are on the Georgia Tech campus, across Atlanta, and around the country.

Questions?

 
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