Three areas where healthcare professionals want better lighting

Everyone wants good lighting. From the hospitality industry to the automotive industry to the healthcare industry, every industry has a specific wish list for getting the ideal light source. Recently, I had the pleasure of speaking with a number of healthcare professionals at one of our local hospitals to learn more about their experience with lighting and the ideal needs they were looking for. The consensus was that the goal is: brighter, automated, and glare-free. OLED lighting meets all of these requirements.

Brighter Lighting
In talking with nurses and technicians, one of the major concerns I found was that the lighting currently provided in hospitals - from patient rooms to perioperative wards - was not bright enough. Given the demanding precision requirements of surgical procedures, it's important to increase brightness without compromising patient comfort.

Today, OLED panels are rated for light outputs of up to 8,400 cd/m2 (i.e. 300 lumens). For reference, this is almost three times the brightness provided by standard office lighting. In addition, OLED lighting has a high CRI and R9 value that displays true colours, thus allowing room occupants to see in line with expectations. With bright lighting that renders colours accurately, healthcare workers no longer have to worry about being unable to perform their tasks accurately due to lack of light.

Intelligent Lighting
Another feature everyone is looking forward to is the reduction of touch points on lighting switches and control panels. Its at a time when the New Crown epidemic is raging globally, automated lighting reduces physical touch points, which in turn reduces the spread of pathogens and ultimately makes hospitals healthier.

OLED lighting is a member of the solid-state lighting (SSL) family and can be easily integrated into automated control, dimming and sensor systems. Some examples given by healthcare professionals include:

Dimming lights after several minutes of inactivity
Automatically activating floor lighting when a patient lands on their feet
Automatically activating bathroom lights when entering the bathroom
Gradually increasing the brightness of the lighting, trying to avoid jumping from dim lighting to bright lighting as quickly as possible
With OLED lighting, all of this and more is possible.

Glare-free light sources
Hospital workers often mention glare reduction in their lighting wish lists. Imagine trying to read a chart or perform an activity all day in a room filled with highly reflective surfaces. It must be hard on one's eyes, from discomfort to pain and potential danger. Prolonged exposure to glare can cause eyestrain and headaches for healthcare professionals and patients.

OLED lighting is a glare-free light source thanks to its Lambertian qualities. Not only does this light source have less glare, but it also has diffuse reflective properties that eliminate harsh indoor shadows, reducing eyestrain and increasing comfort and productivity for light source users.OLEDs are bright light sources that are soft on the human eye, creating a soft and engaging lighting source.

OLED light sources are ideally suited for healthcare scenarios. Integrating OLEDs into automated systems creates a personalised, healthy and sustainable lighting experience. For locations where these values are most valued should choose the lighting of the future: OLED light sources.