A new wing at the Hyundai Cancer Institute at CHOC will provide a customizable healing experience tailored for adolescent and young adult (AYA) patients.
The new AYA wing features a lounge area and four specially outfitted rooms dedicated to this unique patient population. Patient room amenities include vibrant paint colors and customizable wall art.
Taking a cue from the Infusionarium, which opened in 2014 inside CHOC’s outpatient infusion center, the lounge features large, vertically oriented television screens that create a similar immersive, healing environment for patients.
There, AYA patients have a dedicated place to play video games, watch television and movies, or just hang out with their peers. The lounge was developed by Reimagine Well, a company that uses emerging technologies and digital media to create immersive healing environments tailored to patients’ requests.
To develop these virtual scenarios, the company posed a question to patients: Where would you want to heal?
Nick Meza, a 20-year-old patient, immediately knew his answer. As a lifelong Californian and committed Eagle Scout, his life was dotted with dips in the pool, canoe adventures along the river, and seaside snorkeling expeditions before being diagnosed with cancer two years ago.
“It is when I am in the water that I find the serenity and courage to stay positive and focus on what is right with the world,” Nick says. “When I am in, around or close to a body of water, I forget about troubles and my life’s struggles and suddenly water becomes my life, my strength and my healing place.”
A young cinematographer was then paired with Nick to create an immersive film capturing life under the sea; additional videos explored healing scenarios suggested by other patients.
These films will be broadcasted on the large screens in the lounge, as well as on smaller-scale, portable multimedia stations in each of the wing’s patient rooms. The mobile units will also have access to educational, “cancer survival” videos and eBooks that feature CHOC experts.
The AYA wing dovetails with the Cancer Institute’s recognition that teens and young adult patients with cancer have unique needs. In fact, CHOC is among the few pediatric cancer programs in the country with dedicated services for this patient population.
“When it comes to treating an adolescent or young adult with cancer, their medical needs are unique – but so are their psychosocial needs,” says Dr. Leonard Sender, medical director of the Hyundai Cancer Institute at CHOC. “The AYA wing will give these patients a venue to heal on their own terms and a place to call their own.”
CHOC Hospital was named one of the nation’s best children’s hospitals by U.S. News & World Report in its 2024-25 Best Children’s Hospitals rankings and ranked in the cancer specialty.
