Two Nashville companies are at the heart of a national effort to design a hospital room that will transform patient care.

Dubbed “Patient Room 2020,” the latest version of the project is set to be unveiled later this month at the DuPont Corian Design Studio in New York City.

Designed in collaboration by architects, engineers and hospital administrators from national companies, the room prototype integrates technology, architecture and medical processes from the ground up.

Debbie Gregory, a senior clinical consultant at Nashville-based engineering firm Smith Seckman Reid Inc., is a board member and consultant on the project, which is being led by NXT, a South Carolina-based nonprofit that sponsors design innovations to improve health care.

“It’s all about the technology,” Gregory said of Patient Room 2020. “It’s about what could we do in the future, not about what we are doing now.”

Download