The Sky underground

In June 2018, the radio-oncology department of La Tour Hospital, Geneva, received its first patients. The radiotherapy treatment completes the offer of assistance for a comprehensive and multidisciplinary treatment of tumors. In this department, patients undergoing treatment can benefit from state-of-the-art treatments, including state-of-the-art radiotherapy equipment, a Varian EDGE linear accelerator and a competent and specialised team.

Video: "The Sky Underground" a lighting project by DCUBE Swiss.

CoeLux systems installed

Several CoeLux high-tech systems have been installed throughout the department, including a CoeLux 60 HC in the waiting room and 9 CoeLux ST Ibla in one of the bunker rooms where special medical treatment is performed on the patient. These systems can be managed with a dimming system designed specifically to meet the psychophysical needs of the patient throughout the treatment. The different brightness intensities are manually managed by the competent person in an adjacent control office, a space in which there are other CoeLux ST Ibla systems.

Benefits of CoeLux

The context in which the CoeLux systems are installed is already by nature a psychologically stressful environment, moreover, it is located in a basement without windows and open spaces. The aim of the project from a lighting point of view was to create the perception of natural and comfortable lighting throughout the department. Patients undergoing treatment and their families in this department are subjected to anxious situations linked to the claustrophobic structure of some spaces, to the long waits in the waiting room. Recreating a pleasant and natural environment that affects the mood and perception of a basically negative experience is of primary importance during the start of a project in Healthcare. Even the health personnel of the department, who by type of profession, duration of shifts, exposure to the effects of Burnout, can thus benefit from the pleasant aspects of a more natural environment.

 The lighting scenario

Doctors and hospital staff told us how the installation of CoeLux systems in the bunker room, integrated with other ordinary lighting fixtures, brings different psychophysical benefits to the patient. The lighting scenario designed specifically for that environment relieves anxiety in the patient right from the moment he enters the room. In the beginning, the support systems are switched on with warm colour light and CoeLux with an intensity dimmed to 30% and this scenario produces a calming effect on the patient. At the end of the treatment, with the increase in the intensity of CoeLux's brightness to 100% and the switching on of the support lights, the patient is accompanied to a wake-up situation.

Staff’s attitude vs CoeLux

Another testimony to the positive effects of the installation of the CoeLux systems that we received from Davide Oppizzi, owner of DCUBE Swiss and curator of the lighting design of the department, is the attitude of the staff towards the lighting. Doctors, radiotherapists and the rest of the team, despite the fact that there are other LED lighting systems supporting CoeLux ones for regulatory purposes, prefer to keep only CoeLux on in some areas of the department and enjoy a more pleasant and natural working environment, according to them.

To find out more about Davide Oppizzi and his relationship with CoeLux, read our News with the interview.