AIA AAH Case Study Library & Benchmarking - Bridging the Gap

AIAU26-AAH06

Included in subscription

1 LU|HSW

Live course date: 09/08/2026 | 02:00 PM

$30

Architect$30

Member Price

$45

Non-member Price

Description

Tuesday, September 8, 2026

The AIA /AAH Case Study Library, led by the Research Initiatives Committee, transforms award-winning healthcare projects into a shared, practical resource - enabling design decisions that improve patient safety, clinical outcomes, and user well-being. By standardizing and centralizing peer-reviewed case studies, it helps teams quickly identify strategies, benchmark performance, and make more confident decisions to drive smarter design and stronger outcomes across the industry. Examples will focus on how documented design strategies relate to patient safety, staff workflows, and overall user experience in healthcare settings.

Learning Objectives

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Understand how the AIA Academy of Architecture for Health (AAH) and its Research Initiatives Committee develop knowledge resources that inform healthcare planning and design decisions impacting patient safety and well-being.

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Learn how to access and navigate the Case Study Library to identify design strategies, spatial relationships, and considerations relevant to health, safety, and welfare in healthcare environments.

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Explore case studies to understand how planning, layouts, and design features influence patient safety, wayfinding, staff travel distances, staff workflows, and user experience.

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Discover how benchmarking supports more informed design decisions that improve safety, performance, and equitable access in healthcare environments.

Presented in partnership with the Academy of Architecture for Health (AAH).

Instructors

Molly Storrs

AIA, NCARB, EDAC, LEED AP BD+C

Project Architect | Savely Healthcare Architects

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Zack Chung

Zack Chung graduated from Clemson University with a Master of Architecture + Health degree. During his time at Clemson, he joined the AIA AAH committee to support their case study efforts and has remained an active member ever since. Now a Medical Planner at ZGF with two years of experience, Zack has worked on a diverse range of projects spanning from clinics to hospitals. He also plays a significant role in healthcare benchmarking and is deeply passionate about utilizing data and research to evaluate how healthcare design can improve patient safety, staff wellbeing, and the overall user experience.

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Luke Chung

Luke Chung earned a Master of Architecture + Health degree from Clemson University, where he became involved with the AIA Academy of Architecture for Health (AAH) committee, contributing to healthcare case study initiatives and continuing his active engagement with the organization today. Currently a Medical Planner at ZGF with two years of professional experience, Luke has contributed to a wide range of healthcare projects, from outpatient clinics to large-scale hospitals. His work also focuses heavily on healthcare benchmarking, driven by a strong interest in leveraging data and research to understand how healthcare design can enhance patient safety, support staff wellbeing, and improve the overall user experience.

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Mary Beth Welty

Mary Beth Welty has been an AIA/AAH Research Committee member since 2020 and helped to originate the clinic benchmarking subcommittee in 2021. A healthcare planner with 10+ years of experience in over 80 different inpatient and outpatient departments ranging from behavioral health to ambulatory care and multiprocedural specialty clinics, she has been critical to the AIA/AAH clinic benchmarking effort. For 9 years she has led benchmarking processes and Evidenced Based Design research efforts both within the AIA and in her role as a healthcare planner. Mary Beth is an expert at leveraging efficiencies and software to streamline workflows and solve problems. She is passionate about benchmarking healthcare projects because she knows that it allows our industry to better understand the data we already have by analyzing current and past spaces and using that information to help inform our future projects and is excited about the potential knowledge and ideas that benchmarking projects can provide.

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