Inaugural Lecture with Dr. Chris Harty

Inaugural Lecture with Chris Harty: Constructing the Hospital and Building Healthcare

This inaugural lecture by Chris Harty will focus on two questions - what role does the construction sector play in the provision of healthcare infrastructure and what role does infrastructure play in delivering healthcare? The former is a question about how the sector organises itself to build facilities like hospitals; the latter is a perhaps more fundamental question about the importance of the built environment, and by implication the construction sector, in organising healthcare and enabling (or constraining) practices around health and care. Starting with an interest in how collaborative IT systems are developed and used to deliver large hospital building projects, I’ll describe a series of research projects which move from a concern with design and construction processes, through to a broader consideration of how the built environment both supports healthcare delivery and contributes to societal well-being.

Chris Harty is Reader in Design and Construction Innovation in the School of Construction Management and Engineering at the University of Reading. He is Director of the Reading Health and Care Infrastructure Research and Innovation Centre (HaCIRIC). He is principal / lead investigator on over £1.5 million of research projects funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and Technology Strategy Board, and is co-Editor of the journal Construction Management and Economics.

He works with a variety of UK and international built environment and healthcare organisations on a range of IT, virtual reality and change management initiatives and R&D projects. Chris’ background is in sociology and he has conducted ethnographic studies of the development and use of collaborative information systems on large, complex projects. He has also undertaken video-ethnographic studies of the use of immersive VR technologies, and developed future scenario methodologies for the construction sector. His current research interests are in the areas of understanding innovation in organisational and project processes, the design, implementation and use of information systems and the role of the built environment in healthcare organisation and societal well-being.

For more info on Chris Harty.

Programme:

15.00-15.05: Welcome by Kjell Tryggestad, Department of Organization

15.05-16.00: Inaugural lecture: ‘Constructing the Hospital and Building Healthcare’ by Dr. Chris Harty

16.00-17.00: Reception

No registration is required for attending the seminar.