What a difference a year makes.

Last year’s inaugural list of The HCD 10 was an impressive group: The Healthcare Design staff selected these individuals (and one firm) across 10 different categories, with the goal of illuminating the contributions made by a cross-section of industry professionals. And this year—with a little more publicity and an official awards ceremony behind us—we expected even more nominations of highly qualified potential winners. (We got them.)

The toughest part was trying to draw the right distinctions in choosing this year’s list. When you’re faced with a dozen interior designers, for example, all qualified and armed with a long list of accomplishments, what makes one more “worthy” than another? We don’t approach this as a popularity contest, nor do we wish to focus on just the biggest players in the industry. We ultimately want a diverse list of people who’ve played a significant role, in their own way, in steering the direction of healthcare design.

In the end, we focused mostly on the difference a year makes. This is an annual list, after all, so we homed in on the 12 months preceding the nomination process, taking a close look at each nominee’s activities during that time frame. It was exciting, and humbling, to see what our winners were able to achieve, and to consider how these achievements will contribute to the healthcare landscape.

Please join me in congratulating this year’s HCD 10. Individual profiles will be published daily beginning Jan. 27; click on each name below to learn more about this winner's extraordinary work.