Episode #230 Creating Opportunities for Health Through Design with Abbie Clary, Executive Director, Health for All

Episode #230 Creating Opportunities for Health Through Design with Abbie Clary, Executive Director, Health for All

June 16, 2026 · 30 min

About this episode

The episode discusses how design influences health outcomes with guest Abbie Clary.

Can design be a determinant of health? We often think about the quality of the clinical care patients receive in our hospitals, the outcome metrics that determine funding and quality and safety rankings, the readmission rates that tell us how well we’re helping people get healthy and stay that way. But one thing we overlook is the quality, accessibility, and care in the buildings those same patients visit, the parking lots, the cafeterias, the sights, the sounds, the space as a whole. Our guest today is an architect who looks at existing and possible solutions through a unique lens: Who was this designed for? Abbie Clary is CannonDesign’s Executive Director of Health for All where she leads strategy at the intersection of design, health equity and systems change. She has spent nearly 30 years impacting the healthcare system most directly across over $5 Billion in healthcare projects, including work with Memorial Sloan Kettering, University of Chicago Medicine, MD Anderson, Fred Hutch, Kaiser Permanente Shirely Ryan AbilityLab and more. Her perspective that “design is bigger than buildings” is changing healthcare by creating opportunities for health in and around the spaces we as…

People in this episode

Host: Zeev Neuwirth

Guest: Abbie Clary

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Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: CannonDesign, Memorial Sloan Kettering, University of Chicago Medicine, MD Anderson, Fred Hutch, Kaiser Permanente Shirely Ryan AbilityLab

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