It’s not exactly surprising – although still slightly disturbing – the average American reportedly spends 90 percent of his or her time indoors. That includes time at work, at home, in stores, school, the gym, etc.
This likely won’t change anytime soon, so instead of just encouraging people to just get outside more and step away from the desk (undoubtedly without much return), Mayo Clinic and Delos together are trying to optimize what being indoors actually means for our health with the Well Living Lab.
Mayo Clinic and Delos, a company focused on Wellness Real Estate, have unveiled the “first-ever, human-centered research center dedicated to creating healthier indoor spaces” this week during Mayo’s annual Transform conference. The Well Living Lab is designed to optimize and better understand how our indoor environment affects our health.
The lab is adjacent to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota and is essentially a work space and/or living space (dependent on the moving walls and easily reconstructed environments) full of sensors that can interpret data retrieved from those in the space to better understand how things like architecture, lighting, noise, air quality and temperature affect our well-being.
Even the windows can instantly be dimmed or altered to affect lighting in a space.
In essence, those spending time in the lab could be monitored and evaluated on how all of these different indoor environmental aspects affect them while they work in addition to when they go “home,” make dinner, sleep, and start again the next day. It’s a comprehensive opportunity to see how sensory changes, in the most literal way, affect our health.
“There is a growing awareness and body of scientific evidence that indoor, built environments can affect human health and well-being, with the perception often being that indoor environments have a negative impact on health,” Brent Bauer, M.D., medical director of the Well Living Lab and professor of medicine for Mayo Clinic Complementary and Integrative Medicine Program said, according to a release. “But new knowledge shows that by building healthier indoor environments, we can actually preserve and enhance human health and quality of life.”
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
The 7,500 square feet of sensor-rich space is monitored by a control lab, almost resembling a miniature NASA control station, that monitors the data while also protecting it (a key feature), according to Well Living Lab Executive Director Dana Pillai.
Hopes are high for the lab, even at its debut to the public. “Just by standing in this space alone, you have gained a few minutes of life,” Pillai joked during a tour of the space.
“There is a movement taking hold to make healthier indoor spaces a priority in both residential and commercial real estate,” Peter Scialla, chief operating officer of Delos and a member of the Lab’s Joint Steering Committee said in a release. “Building on existing standards which guide developers and manufacturers of products and services toward this goal, the Well Living Lab will be a leader in translating scientific research into practical solutions for indoor environments that have the potential to enhance human health and quality of life in a multitude of ways.”
