What Would The Ideal Hospital Look Like In 2020?

Joseph Flaherty | Wired | July 19, 2013

There is tension between doctors and designers. Architects want to build dramatic structures while doctors need room to deal with traumatic scenarios. Creatives obsess over crafting clean lines, surgical teams operate in highly regulated clean rooms. Nurses shout “Code blue!” while designers ask “Does it have to be blue?” Despite these inherent differences, the non-profit design firm NXT Health has developed a proposal for the nicest hospital room you’ll hopefully never have to visit.

Their project, called Patient Room 2020 presents a vision that fuses the best of the American Medical Association and the Apple Store with a few CCs of Tron thrown in for good measure. The room is filled with curved white panels and brushed aluminum fixtures that make it feel like an iPhone — fitting since backlit displays and touch screens appear on almost every surface to give docs instant access to medical records and vital signs. “Technology has to become the connective tissue that holds together the continuum of care,” says David Ruthven, project co-lead and creative director. “Because there is infinite variability between physical environments.”