Innovating Healthcare: An Interview with Ar. Mihir Desai of HOSMAC

An interview with Ar. Mihir Desai, Director of HOSMAC, a leading healthcare consultancy in India that specializes in hospital planning, design, and management

In this exclusive interview, Ar. Mihir Desai, Director of HOSMAC, shares his insights on the evolving landscape of healthcare consultancy in India.

With a focus on hospital planning, design, and management, he discusses the challenges and innovations shaping the future of healthcare delivery.

Can you share a little bit about your professional journey?

Mihir Desai: My journey began with a deep interest in urban studies and environmental mapping during my undergraduate years while I was pursuing my Bachelors in Architecture from Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute for Architecture.

I was fortunate to work closely with a wide spectrum of stakeholders, such as urban planners, advocacy groups, lawyers, fishermen, tribal communities, and environmental organizations, that shaped my understanding of how urban life and public health are influenced by design, planning, and policy.

I have always had a strong inclination toward mapping, not just in the geographic sense, but in terms of understanding systems, patterns, and relationships. That’s where HOSMAC became a natural fit for me.

As a consultancy, we begin with spatial mapping and strategic planning to bring in insights through real-world architectural and design solutions.

Healthcare architecture, in particular, is a familiar domain for me and my family. Growing up in the HOSMAC environment, I was surrounded by conversations on medicine – such as  procedures in allopathy, surgical interventions, neonatal care, laboratory tests and even other softer forms of healing such as homeopathy or vipassana meditation.

Add to that my early exposure to cartography, transitioning into healthcare design was quite organic and intentional.

I further went to the Europe Union to pursue a Master of Science degree from the Technical Universities of Munich, Wien, Dresden, and the ITC Twente.

What’s fascinating is how healthcare architecture brings together a wide range of disciplines: architecture, interior design, MEP services, equipment planning, financial modelling, and medical planning.

From a mapping perspective, it’s much like planning a city where one must consider terrain, infrastructure, density, green cover, commercial, and residential zones.

The complexity I once dealt with at an urban scale now plays out within the architectural scale of healthcare, where each hospital functions like a self-contained ecosystem.

To me, a hospital is as complex as a city map, and my role is to show the structure and clarity of this complexity, ensuring that the design supports both medical functionality  and healing.

HOSMAC is recognized as a leading healthcare consultancy in India. What core values and principles guide your work at HOSMAC?

Mihir Desai: At HOSMAC, one of our enduring principles is “form follows function”, and we’ve stayed true to it for nearly three decades.

In healthcare, design cannot be outside-in; it must emerge from a deep understanding of clinical workflows and patient needs. As healthcare professionals, we have to think from the inside out. That clarity benefits the entire ecosystem.

Personally, I follow what I call a dual-centric approach, i.e., keeping both the doctor and the patient at the core of every design decision. When you achieve that balance, the built environment starts to genuinely support healing, efficiency, and well-being of everyone involved.

Another value that defines us is the commitment to “doing the right things right the first time”, a directive which is often promoted by HOSMAC’s founder, Dr. Vivek Desai.

For us this means not just having the right knowledge, but also the ability to manage the right systems and workflows to ensure a high quality of deliverables.

It’s a standard that pushes us to strive for excellence every day, because in healthcare, the margin for error is virtually nonexistent. As hospital architects, we draft our drawings with the same precision as that of a surgeon’s knife.

What are some of the most significant challenges currently facing the healthcare sector in India, and how is HOSMAC addressing them?

Mihir Desai: One of the most pressing challenges in Indian healthcare today is the lack of quality infrastructure across vast parts of the country. While we are seeing some progress, the pace of government-led initiatives remains relatively slow.

Campaigns to improve access to healthcare have only recently begun to gather momentum. But the real focus should lie in not just building facilities but in ensuring that people actually receive the care they need, understand how to access it, and are able to navigate the various schemes designed for them.

At HOSMAC, our approach to this challenge is rethinking the model of care delivery. When we plan a healthcare facility, especially at the master planning stage, we conduct a deep regional analysis and local area assessment.

This is done to tailor the facility’s design to the specific healthcare needs of the population it serves, whether that means the right mix of specialties, service distribution, or capacity planning. We don’t believe in a one-size-fits-all approach.

Another critical area is sustainability. The healthcare sector in India is still catching up on the green building mandate. At HOSMAC, we see this as non-negotiable. Our designs integrate architectural and MEP planning from the outset to maximise energy efficiency.

This includes orienting buildings based on solar pathways and wind patterns, carefully planning service routes, and designing façades to mitigate heat gain, particularly on the east and west-facing surfaces.

Hospitals are inherently complex and inward-looking by function, so achieving climate responsiveness in such large-scale structures is practically an art form. It’s a living challenge that we are deeply committed to solving.

How do you envision the future of healthcare design in India, and what role do you see HOSMAC playing in that?

Mihir Desai: We’re at a unique moment in healthcare infrastructure, globally and in India. The focus is increasingly on reducing operational costs, enhancing facility performance, and, most importantly, improving patient outcomes.

And this isn’t just about technology or high-cost materials; it’s about how we fundamentally plan and design our hospitals.

At HOSMAC, we believe the future lies in creating healthcare environments that are adaptable, intelligent, and efficient.

For instance, as technologies like genome sequencing, AI-based diagnostics, robotic surgery, and remote patient monitoring become more integrated into clinical practice, the very architecture of hospitals will need to evolve.

These innovations will bring a new layer of complexity, and automation, data flows, robotics, and logistics will play a much larger role than ever before.

Our job as healthcare planners and designers is to anticipate these shifts. We’re already working with clients to rethink clinical workflows, design for future technologies, and create infrastructure that can incorporate advancements like indoor hospital navigation, telemedicine suites, and even robotic procedures.

There’s also a growing conversation around decentralised care, which includes satellite hospitals, smaller units connected digitally, and possibly even drone-enabled logistics for emergency response in urban as well as remote areas.

While some of these ideas may sound futuristic, the groundwork is already being laid, and we see HOSMAC playing an active role in helping shape that ecosystem.

What advice would you give to young professionals aspiring to enter the field of healthcare?

Mihir Desai: If you’re aspiring to build a career in healthcare architecture, my foremost advice would be to immerse yourself in the real world of hospitals.

Visit as many healthcare facilities as you can. Observe how people move through these spaces, how the environments feel, and importantly, read the signages and door name plates. Understanding the functionality and flow of these buildings is key.

Familiarity with the language of healthcare is also essential. In our field, we use a host of abbreviations like ICU, OPD, IPD, and so on, because clinical spaces often have long, technical names. Learning this language is the first step toward becoming fluent in the logic of hospital planning.

Beyond that, it’s important to understand the unique requirements of different spaces, whether it’s an operating theatre, a daycare cabin, a diagnostic wing, or a patient room. Each has a specific workflow, clinical function, and user experience to consider.

That said, healthcare architecture is a discipline where a lot of knowledge is acquired on the job. Every project brings its own set of challenges because every client has a different vision.

There’s no straight-jacket formula, you have to tailor each solution to meet a unique clinical, cultural, and operational context.

Lastly, It’s a demanding field, but also one of the also socially rewarding – you’re designing spaces that directly impact lives.

Is there anything else you would like to share about HOSMAC?

Mihir Desai: This year marks 29 years of HOSMAC’s journey, and it’s a moment of both reflection and renewal for us.

As healthcare becomes more complex and technology continues to redefine standards of care, our focus at HOSMAC is to be a knowledge-driven practice.

Over the decades, we’ve seen the practice of healthcare architecture evolve dramatically, and with it, our own approach has continuously adapted to stay ahead of the curve.

The journey is incredibly energizing. And for us, this milestone is a springboard to the next phase of innovation.

Ar. Mihir Desai’s vision for HOSMAC highlights the critical role of strategic consultancy in enhancing healthcare infrastructure.

His expertise and commitment to excellence promise to drive significant advancements in hospital planning and management, ultimately improving patient care across India.

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