Tohoku University Hospital

TUH is a large public hospital with 57 departments and 1,262 beds. The hospital offers diagnostic and therapeutic treatment using advanced medical equipment by healthcare professionals who aim to provide patient-centered care.

Tohoku University Hospital incorporated a Luminous SkyCeiling above their Varian TrueBeam Linear Accelerator to reduce patient stress and anxiety during treatment sessions.

TUH can treat a variety of tumors using advanced treatment techniques, including image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT), intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT), and RapidArc® radiotherapy technology while enabling patients to feel as relaxed as possible with the visual and spatial comfort of Sky Factory’s bi-sensory Open Sky Compositions. The illusory sky floods the patient’s focal and peripheral vision with the comforting hue of open blue skies, triggering an automatic relaxation response in the physiology. Relaxed patients help these expensive treatments to run smoothly.
Tohoku University Hospital also decided to pair its radiotherapy equipment with a split image Luminous SkyCeiling.

TUH features an Electa digital linear accelerator that employs precision radiation medicine that allows technicians to tailor the radiotherapy treatments with a high definition dynamic volumetric arc delivery technique. At the same time, the hospital gives patients in treatment the physiological comfort of biophilic illusions of nature. The illusory sky floods the patient’s focal and peripheral vision with the comforting hue of open blue skies, triggering an automatic relaxation response in the physiology.

Tohoku University Hospital also selected one of Sky Factory’s unique, Luminous SkyCeilings, featuring David Fleetham’s stunning photography, which provides a fascinating point-of-view: looking from the bottom of the sea directly up at sea turtles. The 4′ X 8′(1.2m X 2.4m) virtual skylight gives supine patients a fascinating point of view (POV) as they appear to be looking up towards the surface of the water. Patients can canvas the image and catch the shimmer of the sunlight refracted in the water and the colorful underbellies of the turtles passing by.

In addition to featuring David Fleetham’s beautiful underwater photography in the MRI suite, Tohoku University Hospital has also installed research-verified Luminous SkyCeilings in their Computerized Tomography (CT) suite, as well as the patient waiting room. A set of two 60cm X 1.2m virtual skylights greet patients in the joint waiting room, as well as a much larger 4’ X 6’ (1.2m X 1.8m) Luminous SkyCeiling above the scanning equipment. Both installations help provide visual comfort by framing a beautiful vista to wide open blue skies.