Light is often taken for granted, but good lighting systems within healthcare can help to promote a healing environment, improve the workplace for staff and introduce efficiencies around working practices/procedures and energy consumption.
Modern, smart healthcare lighting systems are no longer simply a means of providing artificial light at times or in areas where natural daylight is not available.
SmartScan from Thorlux is a lighting control and emergency monitoring system that is already bringing the power of enhanced information to managers across the healthcare estate. SmartScan builds on established energy-saving technologies in a system that is easy to install, offers a high degree of flexibility and provides online access to the operational details of the entire lighting system.
SmartScan merges Thorlux’s Smart energy-efficient indoor lighting controls - which are designed with group presence detection and individual daylight-based switching and dimming - with energy-saving Smart External lighting controls. It also incorporates Scanlight AT web-based emergency lighting testing and monitoring systems, combining all three into one wireless control system.
The system is designed to efficiently control all main and external lighting and automatically test all emergency lighting, providing central reporting and diagnostics. It monitors energy usage for all lighting, displaying the results in a graphic dashboard on any device with an internet connection.
Luminaires are fitted with a SmartScan transceiver which uses the latest wireless mesh technology to replace wired communication signals between each unit. SmartScan uses 868MHz secure radio communication which offers excellent transmission distance within buildings, with each luminaire acting as a wireless node to repeat commands on to the next luminaire. This provides a robust system that will always find a communication path.
The SmartScan emergency luminaires are stand-alone, with each self-testing to the schedule specified in BS EN 62034:2012. The operational status of each is displayed by the status LED.
Philip Hill, Lighting Systems Product Manager at Thorlux, explains: “SmartScan replaces the wired motionline with mesh networking technology, with groups on the system formed by addressing instead of hard wiring. This means that changes or additions can be easily made to the lighting system as the building layout or needs change. This makes the system extremely easy to install and programme and, in retro-fit situations, it eliminates the time and disruption involved in installing new wiring systems.”
Another key benefit of the SmartScan system is the accessibility of the information. At the heart of the system is a SmartScan Gateway which uses the mesh network to communicate with individual luminaires and transmits energy performance and emergency lighting status reports to the SmartScan web server. Users can access the system information from any location, using a web browser on any enabled device without the need for additional apps or software. This also provides off-site storage for all energy performance data, emergency lighting testing schedules, commissioning certificates and other associated documentation.
Philip Hill concludes: “With our Smart technology, Thorlux is already delivering lighting energy savings in excess of 70% compared with conventional technology. SmartScan brings better, easily accessible information and a much more sophisticated level of control with much-enhanced diagnostic tools. With that level of information, building managers should be in a position to reap even more energy savings from their lighting systems whilst still providing the level and quality of lighting that is critical to health and wellbeing in a care environment.”
Operating theatre lighting
Alpine Works has managed the complete installation of a multi-disciplinary Hybrid Operating Room for the Royal Brompton Hospital. Hybrid Operating Rooms, which combine a state-of-the-art sterile operating room with a powerful imaging system such as an angiography C-arm, a computed tomography (CT) scanner or a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner, are becoming a differentiating factor in today’s hospitals, as minimally invasive procedures driven by intraoperative diagnostics gain ground across a variety of disciplines. In such environments, the most sophisticated lighting is essential.
The Royal Brompton Hospital project comprised the complete installation of the Hybrid OR, including the sophisticated design, complex planning and complete integration of numerous components into one comprehensive, functional system. It combined the very latest technologies from specialist manufacturers, including Siemens’ Artis zeego, the first multi-axis system based on robotic technology; as well as the Magnus operating table system, TEGRIS OR integration platform and POWERLED™ surgical operating lights from Maquet, part of the Getinge Group.
POWERLED lights were developed to enhance and facilitate daily surgical procedures - generating no shadows or overheating.
With Maquet’s AIM™ (Automatic Illumination Management) system, illumination is controlled intelligently and usefully to maximise visibility in the operating room, compensating where required for the loss of illumination due to obstruction. A boost function, offering spare capacity, is also available to deal with any complications. Unnecessary under normal circumstances, operating theatre staff can boost the light intensity if conditions dictate. POWERLED was one of the first surgical lights to use white LEDs to render natural and faithful colours. As a result, there are no coloured cast shadows that could hamper interpretation and diagnosis. Furthermore, irradiance of less than 500 W/m², guarantees that the light does not dry out tissue even in the most sensitive patients.
Alpine Works is being increasingly selected as the electrical contractor of choice for hospital projects - working directly with the client or as a sub-contractor - where its specialist expertise and ability to offer a wide range of project support extends beyond pure lighting installations alone.
Cancer centre lighting
Designed for patients by patients - after ten years of planning, a £160m Cancer Centre at Guy’s Hospital, designed by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners and specialist healthcare architect Stantec has opened in London. It was specifically designed to satisfy the needs of patients and staff while uniting world-class cancer treatments and research facilities in an uplifting, non-institutional healthcare setting.
TRILUX Lighting was solely used to create the desired, bright, welcoming atmosphere for the ground-breaking facility. David Jeffery, London Specification Manager, TRILUX Lighting says: “It is amazing to have been involved in a project of this magnitude and work on a brief which puts people at the heart of the design. We were able to choose products that were right for the task and create inviting comfortable atmospheres. A variety of technology was employed throughout the building but the most impressive is the MRI scanning rooms. The design was led by the patient’s journey, thoughts and feelings. We used our recessed LED panels to recreate works of art - giving patients a feature to focus on while undergoing what can be a stressful scan. The result was astounding.”
The final lighting scheme saw the use of traditional fluorescent fixtures alongside advanced LED fittings throughout the 14-storey building, to provide a light, uplifting ambience, efficiently.
Dynamic light
Evidence is mounting about the positive effects that circadian lighting may have on Alzheimer’s sufferers. A recent study, conducted by the ORPEA Group in co-operation with Nice University Hospital, Le Centre d’Innovation et d’Usages en Santé (CIU-Santé) and TRILUX lighting has confirmed that dynamic circadian lighting has significant, positive effects on the wellbeing of Alzheimer’s patients.
ORPEA Group is a large, European provider of healthcare services, including residential services for older people. This study took place at ORPEA’s Valenton care home near Paris. TRILUX lighting solutions which replicate the natural rhythm of daylight were installed in corridors, common rooms and relaxation rooms. Over a period of 42 days the effects of the dynamic light on length of sleep phases, night-time behavioural disturbances and anxiety symptoms were analysed, eventually concluding that residents benefited from longer sleep cycles and improved sleep quality, resulting in a distinct reduction in night-time behavioural disturbances and anxiety symptoms. The nominal sleeping period increased by 55 minutes over a 24-hour period and patients woke up less during the night.
Sleep has been found to be a major influencing factor in neurodegenerative diseases, with upto 44%* of cases of such diseases, for instance Alzheimer’s, connected to abnormal sleep patterns. Disturbed sleep patterns result in a reduction in cerebral function regeneration, the consequences of which are disruption to concentration, sleepiness and the deterioration of existing symptoms. “The sleep-wake pattern can be stabilised by using a dynamic lighting solution, with light colour and light intensity oriented to the natural course of the sun during the day,” explains Dr. Raphael Kirsch, Lighting Application Specialist at TRILUX.
TRILUX is known for its research into and development of lighting solutions that support and strengthen the biological rhythm and its systems have been successfully used in many hospitals, care centres and homes for the elderly. As part of this study TRILUX installed its Liventy Flat and Plenar HD1-Q lighting solutions. The colour temperatures of the luminaires vary during the day moving from cool to warm light (3,000- 6,500 K). Controlled by a light management system, the luminaires simulate the 24-hour rhythm of daylight.
The findings of this study are being validated by a further period of study by Nice University Hospital. Following the test period of the study, ORPEA opted to keep the TRILUX lighting and has witnessed continued improvements of symptoms. A further step will investigate the possibility of reducing sedative medication, which would mean more benefits for the mental and physical health of patients.
Treatment of sleep disturbances in Alzheimer’s disease: McCurry SM et al. Sleep Medicine Reviews 2000;4(6):603-28
“The effects of the dynamic light on length of sleep phases, night-time behavioural disturbances and anxiety symptoms were analysed”
“The system is designed to efficiently control all main and external lighting and automatically test all emergency lighting, providing central reporting and diagnostics”
