Shining a Light on Alzheimer's: The Benefits of Light Therapy

A closer look at the potential benefits of light therapy for Alzheimer's patients and how it can improve their quality of life.

Ensuring Patient Safety: The Crucial Conversation on Re-Sterilization of Surgical Tools

In the realm of healthcare, where patient safety and infection control are paramount, the meticulous sterilization of surgical tools plays a pivotal role. The re-sterilization of these instruments has emerged as a critical issue that demands our attention. This practice, while often driven by cost considerations, raises concerns about its potential impact on patient safety and infection control standards. In this blog post, we delve into the complexities surrounding the re-sterilization of surgical tools and the imperative for a thorough examination of its consequences.

Factors for Optimizing Hospital Lighting: Creating a Healing Environment


The design of lighting for the hospital setting involves balancing multiple factors, such as anticipating complex procedural scenarios and considering occupants’ biological and physiological needs. Both the needs of the patients and providers should be analyzed, as each group has different lighting-related demands. For example, medical providers require sufficient lighting to complete vital tasks, while patients may need lighting for general comfort and relaxation during their stay. Adjustable lighting can help with the needs of both. When patients' and providers' unique needs are considered, a more human-centric approach can be achieved.

Enhancing Safety in Surgical Lighting: Mitigating Risks and Ensuring Patient Well-being

When designing a safe medical device for patients and users, several factors must be considered. Specifically, in the case of surgical lighting, there are critical risks to be mitigated, especially when the light source is near the patient's body during minimally invasive procedures. 

In this article, we will discuss four major areas of safety concerns involving surgical lighting:  

  • Thermal safety 
  • Eye strain of medical staff, and 
  • Infection rates associated with reprocessing devices 
  • Power outages and lighting failures  

We’ll review design concerns and how to overcome these challenges.

Aesthetic Lighting: How Lighting Can Enhance the Overall Look & Feel of a Product

Introduction

In today’s world, brand recognition shows up everywhere, and the medical technology industry is no exception. Branding is ever-present, from medical equipment such as an MRI machine to the label on a disposable package. When OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) are in the design phase of product development, brainstorming new ways to cut through marketplace noise is becoming more difficult as time goes on but is still critical for product success. 

Photobiomodulation: Light-Tissue Interaction, and the Current and Future States of PBM

 

Photobiomodulation (PBM) is a non-invasive, non-thermal form of light therapy that utilizes non-ionizing light sources to create therapeutic effects at the cellular level. Light sources employed in PBM include lasers and LEDs in the visible (400-700 nm) and infrared (700-1100 nm) spectra. PBM produces therapeutic treatments (PBMT) in diseased and damaged tissues to promote wound healing and tissue regeneration, reduce inflammation, relieve pain, and restore original cell function.

Figure 1The Wide Range of Clinical Applications of PBMT

Innovation in Manufacturing: Embracing Intrapreneurship

Innovation is the key to shaping the future of manufacturing, and it should start from within each organization. Lumitex President and CEO, Peter Broer, said that he believes "there is a deep mine of potential in mid-size companies throughout Northeast Ohio". We explored the concept of innovation in manufacturing alongside MAGNET and Bettcher Industries

We are honored to be featured in MAGNET: The Manufacturing Advocacy and Growth Network's The Blueprint for Manufacturing in Northeast Ohio: Innovation Documentary

 

Hospital Lighting: Human-centric Approach Without Reducing Illumination

When thinking about hospital lighting, many people will automatically visualize the bright fluorescent lights throughout the building that make it feel sterile and clean. With advancements in technology and knowledge around the impact light can make on physical and emotional health, hospitals are now starting to consider taking a different approach to their lighting efforts.

This article will talk about the current state of hospital lighting and how we see it changing in the future.

Sterilization Lighting: Improved Technology to Reduce or Eliminate HAIs

 
Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) are infections that patients acquire while receiving medical treatment. The infections occur specifically in a hospital, outpatient surgery center, nursing home, rehabilitation facility, or while receiving wound care services. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), HAIs pose a threat to patient safety and are preventable in many instances.

HAIs not only threaten patients' health and life but bring additional economic burdens to patients and the healthcare system, including direct financial loss and prolonged hospitalization. Total hospital length of stay (LOS) is known to be extended by the occurrence of HAI. [source]

At any one time in the United States, 1 out of every 25 hospitalized patients is affected by an HAI [source], and according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an estimated 99,000 die from their infection.

This article will discuss the different types of HAIs and how light can support the prevention efforts for these types of infections.

Phototherapy Lighting: Therapeutic and Diagnostic Technology

One could consider the science of medicine to consist of two categories: diagnostics (the science of finding out what is wrong with the body) and therapeutics (the science of fixing what is wrong).

Interestingly enough, light has proven itself worth in both the diagnostic and therapeutic areas of the medical world. 

Phototherapy has evolved impressively over the years as an emerging treatment modality to satisfy therapeutic needs. However, even more impressive is the progress made on the complementary side, where biophotonics, the interdisciplinary field at the intersection of biology and photonics, shows promise to satisfy a variety of diagnostic needs.

At Lumitex, we strive to be a world-class medical lighting system provider, and with that role comes the responsibility to be intimately familiar with technological advancements in the phototherapy market. This article covers phototherapy (therapeutic) applications today and biophotonics (diagnostic) opportunities of the future.