Project Profile

Balek Lighting

Poor quality lighting is often a cause of medical errors. When the physician and nurses cannot see clearly, the treatment procedure can be slowed down and often result in unintentional mistakes. The current lighting system in emergency departments does not provide sufficient and quality light for the doctors, nurses, and staff. There is also not an efficient lighting system to provide ambient mood lighting for the patient’s comfort. The problems can be divided into two parts:

  1. Physician & nurse: poor quality lighting prevents accurate vision could lead to poor treatment & extended time spent on procedure.
  2. Patient: stale atmosphere and unwelcoming environment could affect healing process due to psycho?physiological effects.

Many scientific research studies have documented the effects of lights and colors on health. Light is important in the emergency department, not only for medical treatment procedures but also for the health of the patients and staff. Light has been shown as a main regulator of the human circadian rhythm through the action of melatonin. When the light and dark light cycles are unbalanced, the melatonin levels are perturbed, causing symptoms of poor sleep quality, increased in sleep disturbances, lack of alertness, seasonal depression, and immune deficiencies. Seasonal depression symptoms can be alleviated through light therapy, and its benefits are of equivalent to taking anti?depressant medications.

Colors also have profound effects on our body. Many research studies show therapeutic benefits of using blue and red lights in the treatment of depression, eating disorders, cancer, and healing wounds. Current lighting products on the market do not provide an integrated system that would provide working lights as well as ambient mood lighting. The existing colored?light technologies are often very cost?prohibitive. Our team designed the Balek lighting system with the following benefits:

  • Non complicated & complex lighting system, allowing physician and nurses to acquire working lights in an expedited manner
  • Clear, bright, focal lighting that would not obscure any important facts during medical and physical exams
  • User?controlled ambient lighting system for patients
  • Provide general, diffuse lights for staff and technicians
  • The integrated lighting system allows for economically & financially sound investment as well as easy installation.

The Balek Lighting System provides solutions to the identified problems and satisfies all the criteria needed for an efficient and practical lighting system. Future improvements would be to implement RFID technology in LED lights. This technology would allow for automatic detection of motion, and deliver focal lighting from various angles to the area detected with high levels of activity. The Balek lighting system is an attractive lighting fixture that can be applied to the healthcare field, both in an inpatient and outpatient treatment room setting. Other design considerations include:

  • Increasing the Balek’s ability to be energy efficient through using energy savings lights
  • Utilize Daylight and Full-Spectrum lighting technology to maximize healing capabilities from light source
  • Improve ambient lighting with more research into effects of colors on socio?psychological health of patients
  • Explore different geometric shapes & alternative materials for construction of system
  • Explore different placement of lighting components