LifeConnections Health Center
by Richard L. Peck, Contributing Editor
When information technology giant Cisco Systems creates an employee health clinic, chances are you’re glimpsing part of the future of healthcare delivery. The year-old LifeConnections Health Center, located at Cisco’s corporate headquarters in San Jose, California, features some of the company’s latest technology, with a facility designed to maximize its effectiveness. While the center offers traditional (and then some) ambulatory healthcare services-primary care, pediatric care, acupuncture, travel medicine, mental health, nutrition counseling, chiropractic, physical therapy, pharmacy, laboratory and radiology-its delivery methods are not traditional: automated check-in/check-out, wireless communications, living room-like care suites, flat-screen technology, teleconferencing and telehealth. Recently interior designer/planner Jain Malkin, CID, AAHID, EDAC, who accepted the design challenge this posed, and Cisco officials Sharon Gibson, Director of the Healthcare Practice in the Internet Business Solutions Group, and Pamela Hymel, MD, Corporate Medical Director, elaborated on the project for HEALTHCARE DESIGN Contributing Editor Richard L. Peck.