3-Dimensional simulation of nuclear medicine laboratory construction

Learning Objectives In addition to work-flow and circulation, effective medical service must be considered in connection with the architectural design of a hospital. Thus, it is rather intricate to design an efficient hospital in all aspects. Moreover, in the designs of laboratory facilities of a hospital, laboratory-specific requirements must be kept in mind too. Radiation protection is added to the some important considerations in designing nuclear medicine laboratories. Recently, 3-dimensional modeling has been increasingly used in various fields of architecture. Author applied 3-dimensional modeling to the design of a nuclear medicine laboratory in a hospital.

Methods: In consideration with work-flow, circulation, medical service and radiation protection, a nuclear medicine laboratory facility was 2-demensionally designed. From 2-demensional design, 3-dimensional modeling has taken a place to improve work-flow, care-giving, infection-prevention, circulation, radiation protection and humanistic environment. All items were discussed carefully in a team of architects, engineers and doctors. A final decision was made by the consensus of the team members. In a case that the items conflict with each other, a decision followed the predetermined order. Results: With an application of 3D-simulation, ineffective or less effective components of nuclear medicine laboratories were corrected into more effective ones and more radiation-protective structure. Conclusions: 3D-simulation was effective in correcting an inefficient or wasteful space deployment and in improving workflow. However, the applied 3D-simulation methods showed limited performance in improving practice-specific issues. Therefore, in the future, advanced and integrated 3D-simulation methods such as BIM may be warranted