U.S. researchers suggest room design can improve the quality of a visit to the physician's office.

The randomized trial, published in Health Environments Research and Design Journal, found physicians felt they were able to share more information and patients felt they had better access to information in an experimental office design in which the physician and patient sat side-by-side facing the computer screen at a semicircular desk.

"This study supports the notion that the space in which people meet can influence how they work together," study researcher Dr. Victor Montori of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., said in a statement

UPI, 10/30/09

Tags: Center for Innovation, Innovation (Center of), patient room