Testing Differences Before-and-After or Among Groups in Healthcare Design Research

What impact do our designs have on people and processes? Understanding and measuring the impact of design on processes and operational outcomes is a key attraction in conducting evidence-based design (EBD) research. Without this information any EBD research is of lesser practical value (although possibly still theoretically relevant), as it will add limited applicable knowledge to the information support base. While designing a research study, the before-and-after design offers tremendous appeal. If outcomes of interest could be measured before and after a change (such as a physical design intervention) is effected, the difference in measurements between the after (post) and before (pre) measures will provide information on both the direction and magnitude of the change in outcome.