Approaches to health care in the U.S. change as technology improves, a topic A&M researchers will address Friday morning.
The College of Architecture will host “Future Technology and Health Care,” as part of its Arch for Health lecture series. PK Carlton, Jr., manager of PK Concepts, LLC, will be a keynote at the event.
“I have been giving lectures every year on a variety of topics for George Mann, so I know him well,” Carlton said. “We have had three major projects with his students and I think very highly of him.”
Carlton said working with students at A&M has provided a different perspective on the future of health and technology.
“The students bring a fresh look on many things, unhampered by what has happened in the past,” Carlton said. “They are a lot of fun to work with and think problems through with.”
Rodney Hill, architecture professor, will also speak at the event. He said planning for health care in the future is important. He used hospitals as an example, saying that present hospital designs will be going obsolete by 2025.
“With a 90,000 shortfall of doctors, not to mention nurses and therapists, the design of hospitals will drastically change,” Hill said. “Wearables will be a multi-trillion dollar market that will monitor each one of us and technicians will notify us when and if we need to come to see a doctor. So hospitals will be high tech communication and monitoring centers. Organs can be printed out using 3D printing and the patient’s own cells so there is not a rejection.”
Soheil Hamideh, master of architecture candidate, worked alongside other students to create a rapidly deployable modular isolation unit for Ebola patients. He said Carlton and George Mann, architecture professor, both advised the group of students throughout the design process.
“Carlton was there during the presentation and giving comments,” Hamideh said. “He is now working on shipping our designs to members of Congress.”
Hamideh said Carlton’s commitment to health care makes him one of the most experienced people in the future of healthcare and design and will contribute greatly to the seminar.
“Carlton’s dedication to health care goes far beyond regular hazard recovery and surge hospital planning,” Hamideh said. “His involvement in enhancing healthcare design is valued based on what he does to bring young thoughts into this field and offering innovative solutions in case of new health disasters.”
The event will start at 11:30 a.m. Friday in the Langford Architecture Center in room C105.