Research has shown that light can improve patient outcomes and provide healthy work environments for staff, according to an article on the Medical Construction & Design website.
The Center for Lighting Enabled Systems & Applications at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, together with the Illuminating Engineering Society, sponsored a workshop to explore pathways to define and promote the adoption of lighting systems specifically for healthcare environments. The result is the release of a white paper detailing the outcomes and contributions of the participants.
“Today, the field of lighting and healthcare is undergoing rapid development,” Robert Karlicek Jr., professor in the Department of Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering at Rensselaer, said in the article.
“As research continues to build the link between lighting spectral power distributions and wellness, LED lighting technology strives to bring new healthy lighting to market. Often commercialization in this capacity happens without establishing the clinical data to demonstrate a value-added benefit for patients or the providers, or a defined return on investment for the healthcare industry.”