As cancer treatment continues to evolve with new breakthroughs and technologies, healthcare spaces must evolve alongside them. Intentional design that adapts to the latest advancements while balancing the spiritual, emotional, and social needs of patients, families, and staff can make all the difference in healing.
Below are nine specific themes to consider when planning and designing cancer centers:
1. A Holistic Approach
Optimized efficiency and state-of-the-art technology are often front and center in discussions around cancer centers. However, needs go beyond physical health—designers must apply an empathetic lens to address the holistic wellbeing of patients.
Meditation spaces provide opportunities for patients and visitors to feel spiritually uplifted, gardens invite patients to venture out of their rooms to connect with the nature, and the ability to adjust lighting and temperature within a room provides patients with a sense of control. The use of sustainable materials like VOC-free products throughout design and construction demonstrates respect for concerns surrounding carcinogens. Together, these considerations create environments for comprehensive healing.
2. Connected to Community
Cancer treatment can feel isolating, but the right spaces help foster connection and community. Purposeful design brings people together, offering vital social support needed for healing. Group counseling rooms and family resource centers should be designed for accessibility, flexibility to changing group sizes, and facilitation of discussions. The integration of art and music therapy studios provides creative outlets for patients coping with cancer-related stress and anxiety.
Whether it’s friends, family, providers, or other patients, being surrounded by a supportive community is critical to wellbeing, and design can facilitate these connections within cancer centers.
3. Calm and Comforting
Design also plays a key role in combatting the fear and discomfort that treatment can bring by creating spaces that feel calming and comforting. Outdoor green spaces with walking paths and seating areas can offer respite and relaxation to patients and visitors. These spaces should be accessible, allowing everyone to enjoy them, including those with mobility challenges.
The importance of natural elements extends indoors, too. Nature-inspired materials, patterns, and colors along with quality views to the outdoors aid in bringing the tranquility of the outdoors into cancer facilities. Particularly in pediatric environments, multi-sensory, interactive design elements and graphics help provide positive distractions to reduce stress.
4. Flex for the Future
Along with creating human-centered spaces that meet holistic needs, designers can also equip facilities with the tools they need to remain flexible into the future as cancer treatments develop. Exam and treatment rooms should be configurable to seamlessly integrate new equipment, support new healthcare services, or even flex between specialties on a day-to-day basis.
By planning cancer centers with tomorrow’s innovations at the forefront, designers work to create environments that are resilient not only to a range of patient needs today but also stand the test of time and save costs down the line.
5. Supporting Multidisciplinary Teams
As treatment teams become increasingly multidisciplinary in nature, flexible spaces are critical to creating appropriate environments for providers to collaborate. Treatment and staff areas may need to accommodate not only physicians and nursing teams, but also researchers, genetic counsellors, physical therapists, pathologists, pharmacists, and providers of complementary and alternative medicine.
Workspaces should also encourage a culture of interdisciplinary teamwork, mutual support, and open communication among clinical providers. To ease treatment for patients, group consultation spaces can be provided for education about developing a good life balance through nutrition, exercise, and mental wellbeing.
6. Caring for Providers
In order to provide high quality, compassionate care, providers must also be valued and cared for. In a job that can be both physically and emotionally demanding, it’s important that staff have access to dedicated areas for respite and privacy—whether it’s a quiet room, a private outdoor space, or views to nature in break areas. These environments can help staff recharge and return to their roles with renewed focus and energy.
Providing areas for both focused work and collaboration allows medical teams to perform their best, utilizing the right types of workspaces, with the right level of privacy, in the right location.
7. Integrating Research – Translational Medicine
It’s crucial to create collaborative research ecosystems that promote interdisciplinary collaboration and knowledge sharing among researchers, clinicians, and industry partners.
Designing platforms such as research networks and consortiums to facilitate communication, data sharing, and collaborative projects, fosters innovation and accelerates the translation of research findings into clinical practice. The integration of flexible research laboratories, technology incubators, and collaborative workspaces in cancer centers encourages scientific discovery and the development of novel cancer therapies.
8. Personalized Medicine and Novel Therapies
Developing user-friendly interfaces for clinicians to access and interpret complex genomic and molecular data is essential. Intuitive visualization tools and decision support systems can aid healthcare providers in understanding patient-specific molecular profiles and selecting personalized treatment options effectively. Designing systems that can seamlessly integrate and analyze diverse data types (genomic, clinical, imaging, etc.) from different sources is crucial for personalized medicine.
9. Implications of Artificial Intelligence
We are at the early stages of the dawn of Artificial Intelligence (AI), revolutionizing the rate at which clinical research breakthroughs occur. AI will play a crucial role in identifying optimal matches for novel therapies for each individual patient. However, effectively integrating precision medicine within clinical pathways demands a dedicated effort toward knowledge management decision support.
Strategic design that blends innovation and empathy brings the opportunity to redefine healing in cancer centers. By addressing holistic wellbeing, supporting both patients and providers, and facilitating adaptability to the latest advancements, these environments can transform the treatment experience.
