The Health Design Podcast

In this episode of the Health Design Podcast, host Moyez Jiwa speaks with Laura Morris, an interior designer at Perkins&Will who specializes in healthcare environments.

Laura shares her passion for designing spaces that support the whole patient — not just the clinical procedure — with a particular focus on women's health. The conversation centers on the Nemours Children's Hospital Advanced Delivery Unit in Delaware, a recently completed project for high-risk pregnancies that Laura describes as her most rewarding work.

Key themes covered:

Design as healing: How environment directly affects patient stress, blood pressure, and willingness to communicate openly with clinicians.
The Nemours ADU project: A unit serving mothers who know their babies will need immediate medical care at birth. The design balances state-of-the-art clinical functionality (labor rooms, operating rooms with resuscitation areas, direct NICU corridors) with hotel-like comforts — spa-style bathrooms, nature views, personalized lighting, and even spaces for staff-hosted baby showers.
Sensory design: Patient-controlled lighting and color-changing artwork, digital signage replacing paper signs, noise-zoned corridors, and frosted windows bringing daylight into operating rooms.
Staff wellbeing: How good design improves staff retention and morale, with the nursing director reporting she still smiles walking in every morning.
Urban hospitals: Practical strategies for inner-city facilities without idyllic settings — borrowed light, biophilic elements, printed window shades, and accessible staff respite spaces.
Three lessons: Collaboration and shared vision, fighting for good design decisions, and proof that speed (18 months for 30,000 sq ft) doesn't have to compromise quality.

When Doctors Become Caregivers: Supporting Carers, Community Health, and the Limits of Quick Fixes

On the Health Design Podcast, Moyez Jiwa speaks with physician Tyson Garfield about how his perspective on patient experience shifted after his partner was diagnosed with a mucinous borderline ovarian tumor, underwent radical surgery, and faced a prolonged recovery that felt fractured despite good surgical care. Tyson describes the emotional labor, uncertainty before pathology, and using the AI tool OpenEvidence, as well as the need for caregiver support through primary care access and “the village,” noting the healthcare system funds individuals but not unpaid carers. They discuss rural and urban aging challenges including transport dependence, food deserts, limited internet, clinician retention, and fragmented community ties, and highlight community-focused care models like PACE and the importance of social workers. They also debate rising demand for semaglutides/GLP-1s, concerns about long-term effects such as sarcopenia, and the need for clinicians to be more vocal advocates for healthy aging and evidence-based information.

00:00 Welcome Back Tyson
00:39 Partner Diagnosis Shock
03:55 Recovery Gaps Exposed
05:09 Emotional Labor Uncertainty
09:13 Caregiver Needs Support
10:51 Supporting the Carers
12:04 Why Village Unfunded
15:14 Rural Aging Tasmania
19:48 Building Rural Care Models
22:09 Keeping Doctors Rural
26:28 Urban Isolation Caregivers
30:33 Sharing Info Legal Risks
32:56 Ethics What Matters Most
34:51 Social Drivers Physician Role
37:46 Food Deserts GLP1 Debate
42:13 Advocacy Against Quick Fixes
45:06 Closing Thanks Farewell

Dr. Tim McLerran is a physician-turned product leader with a mission to bring human and machine intelligence together in the service of clinical challenges. During a research fellowship at the University of California, San Diego, Tim co-developed methods to rapidly measure the molecular milieu of human blood using mass spectrometry. This exposed him to the massive volume of data in precision medicine, and precipitated a realization that artificial intelligence would have to be a part of medicine in order for us to make full use of the data available for each patient. As an entrepreneur and product leader, Tim has developed and deployed systems which provide AI support to clinicians in diagnosis, management, documentation, and patient communication. He is dedicated to the quadruple aim of healthcare, practices user-centered design, favors lean and agile methods of software development, and actively advocates for the ethical principles laid out by the American Medical Association in their November 2024 statement "Augmented Intelligence Development, Deployment, and Use in Health Care".

Jill Wener, MD is a board-certified Internist, ICF-certified professional coach, certified EFT/tapping practitioner and trainer, anti-racism educator, DEI consultant, trauma specialist, allyship coach, and expert in physician wellness. Jill is passionate about helping people take responsibility for their problems and teaching them practical, easy, rewarding, and trauma-informed tools to take self-improvement to the next level. Jill is the co-creator of the CME-accredited Conscious Anti-Racism training programs, the host of the Conscious Anti-Racism podcast, and the co-author of the best-selling Conscious Anti-Racism book. She has created CME-accredited EFT/tapping and meditation courses.
Jill has worked with clients such as Georgia Aquarium, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Yale University, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, Seattle Children’s Hospital, Centene, Santa Clara Medical Society, Rush University Medical Center, ChenMed, the Pittsburgh Business Group on Health, Emory University, Atkins Global, and the National Alliance for Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions.

Dr. Lattisha Bilbrew is a board-certified Orthopaedic Surgeon specializing in Hand and Upper Extremity Surgery and the first Black woman to become a partner at Resurgens Orthopaedics—Georgia’s largest orthopedic practice. She is one of fewer than five practicing Black female orthopaedic surgeons in the entire state, breaking barriers in a field where fewer than 2% of surgeons are women of color. Born in Birmingham, England to Jamaican parents, Dr. Bilbrew’s story is one of resilience, faith, and purpose.

Dr. Bilbrew’s research interests include diversity and inclusion within orthopaedic surgery. Her work on racial disparities in the treatment and evaluation of carpal tunnel syndrome has been published in peer-reviewed medical literature.
An advocate for health equity, Dr. Bilbrew travels annually to Washington, D.C., representing the AAOS before members of Congress on issues such as Medicare reform, prior authorization, and physician-owned hospital access. Her leadership and influence have earned her numerous honors, including recognition in The Atlantan Magazine as one of Atlanta’s Top Orthopaedic Surgeons, Georgia Trend’s “Top 40 Under 40,” and Modern Luxury’s “Most Powerful Women of Atlanta” and “Influential Atlantans in Medicine.”

Episode Description:
Dr. Bilbrew shares her powerful journey into medicine, inspired by a personal family experience that shaped her mission to lead with empathy and compassion. As one of the few Black women in orthopedic surgery, she reflects on embracing identity, breaking barriers, and navigating bias with pride in her Jamaican heritage. She discusses how individual empathy and systemic advocacy work hand-in-hand to advance health equity, from patient-level connection to policy-level change. Dr. Bilbrew also highlights the importance of mentorship, community engagement, and preparing future clinicians to serve with purpose, integrity, and understanding.

Dr. Bilbrew is the author of the #1 Amazon bestseller, Yes, I Am The Surgeon: Lessons on Perseverance in a World That Tells You No, a compelling memoir of resilience, representation, and faith. Her forthcoming book, Measure Twice, Cut Once: Lessons on Confidence in a World That Tells You No, explores the power of preparation, purpose, and self-trust in overcoming adversity.