‘Precision needs patient comfort’: how softening the clinical environment supports patient safety

‘The more accurate you can be, the better your outcome will be’

Last year, after four years of development, RUH completed its £50m Dyson Cancer Centre. Though the centre has been welcoming patients since 2024, it was only fully finished in late 2025.

The centre brings together the majority of the RUH’s cancer services, including research, under one roof. It provides oncology, chemotherapy and radiotherapy services, as well as a 22-bed inpatient ward and a wellbeing hub.

Working together on this level of innovation meant that the team were also on the lookout for technologies that would help patients feel at ease throughout the uncertainty that comes with cancer diagnosis. Lisa Tolson, radiotherapy service manager at the trust, explains that the team turned to digital window installation company Sky Inside. The firm provides ceiling-mounted lighted images showing restful outdoor scenes to soften the clinical environment and provide distraction for patients. This can be particularly helpful to those who find radiotherapy and scanning equipment intimidating, she says.

In November last year, the inpatient ward area was installed with one such lighting system, displaying scenes that gently move, such as fish in an aquarium, or branches swaying on an overhead tree. 

The radiotherapy area was undergoing a refurbishment programme as part of the centre’s development, and the team approached the hospital’s charity, RUHX, to see if they would support an update project. The new system is now installed in both the linear accelerator bunkers and the CT scanner room.

“The improvement in the clinical environment has been wonderful for staff and patients,” Lisa says. “Using a simple touchscreen monitor inside the CT room and bunkers, patients are able to choose the colour of the mood lighting they would like during their scan or treatment, and they are also able to select which Living Sky scene they would like to view, such as underwater, the night sky, wispy clouds and trees. 

“Not only is it more relaxing, but patients are able to have an increased sense of being in control of their treatment.”

Many of the radiotherapy team at the RUH have experienced just how much of a difference the installations make. Alice Potter, a Therapeutic Radiographer at the trust, says patients are often nervous and stressed about the entire process, and it can take some time for them to settle down and get ready for a session in the linear accelerator. But with the digital windows, many are finding it much easier to relax. Feedback, she adds, has been “really good so far”.

Victoria Pope, another Therapeutic Radiographer at the RUH, says: “We work within millimetres, so it’s extremely important the patient stays still. It has already been shown that this [digital window installation] helps to relax and calm them, and therefore keep them still. So many patients come in anxious and frightened, and having this has just been a game changer. You hear the patients in the waiting area discussing it and saying how much it helps.”

The best for patients 

The digital windows are created by Sky Inside, a British healthcare company that specialises in innovations that improve patient wellbeing. The windows are in-ceiling or in-wall devices that are capable of creating a variety of atmospheres with live, in-motion vistas of nature, the sky, moonlight and more.

They work best in settings with very few alternative options for light or stimulation, which makes them particularly suited for linear accelerator rooms, the RUH team discovered. The necessary radiation shielding, which prevents radiation from escaping the room, also means patients must endure a total lack of natural light. 

To find out more about how they aid in relaxation and recovery, Synergy spoke to Sky Inside CEO Allan Sinclair. He says the natural settings on display have a proven impact on comfort and mood by prompting the pineal gland in the hypothalamus to kickstart the relaxation process and reduce stress, and were recently patented.

The RUH, he says, is his favourite hospital. His first run-in with the institution was in 2008, when he found himself in an induced coma in the cardiology unit. Since then, he’s had the chance to visit nearly every department in the hospital, which has only reinforced his love of the place. “Most importantly,” he adds, “they get it. They get the ethos. They are 100 per cent patient focused. They want to deliver the best outcomes for patients. I’ve worked with the trust charity as well. They’ve been great believers in what we can do.”

Sky Inside has now supplied four of its digital window systems for patients at the RUH, and has seen consistent demand for repeat business across many of its other sites. “They want to make sure their patients in this area are getting the best-quality treatment and, most importantly, the ongoing innovation out there that’s helping those patients to recover quicker,” Allan says.

“Our aim was to work with different people to develop a programme to adjust people’s circadian rhythms. I wish I had invented it 10 years ago, and they could have used it on me in the cardio unit! I wake up at 5am every day because, when you have a trauma incident, it puts that spike in your brain to say there’s a problem, and it can’t reset unless we wake up at normal times.

“Every cell in your body has a circadian clock, and they all function together. If you go off kilter, it affects your metabolism. You can have chronic fatigue. It can lead to Alzheimer’s and dementia. This research has been in the background for quite a while, and it’s now getting mainstream.” 

For patients in intensive care, Allan says, systems can help people shorten their recovery time by up to 40 hours; for example, for those who have suffered from a stroke. By having their circadian rhythms reset properly, they require less pain medication – and with fewer drugs going in, the body recovers more quickly, he explains. 

In fact, the team is in conversation with Addenbrooke’s Hospital staff in pre and post-operative theatre about a research project focusing on the technology. Allan says the team at RUH had been “champions” of the technology, particularly after seeing it at work in the hospital.