Cardiologist Hareld Kemps appointed full professor at TU Eindhoven

Kemps: "My research focuses on developing effective methods to improve quality of life and prevent hospitalizations in chronic heart patients, using both home monitoring, remote counseling and rehabilitation in the home environment. Take, for example, our research on home rehabilitation after hospitalization in elderly patients with chronic heart failure. We hope to demonstrate that in the long term a personalized telerehabilitation program leads to more independence for patients and less care consumption.

This fits well with the mission of the department of Industrial Design, which focuses on the application of new technology in everyday life centered on the possibilities and wishes of the patient. Within TU/e there is a lot of expertise on the smart and attractive design of such processes and the associated technology. Máxima Medical Center, based in Eindhoven, offers researchers the opportunity to validate the effectiveness of the processes and technology in practice."

Technologie, design, wetenschap en zorgpraktijk

As a professor at TU/e, Kemps is fully committed to scientific research. With his research team, he focuses on design, implementation of technology and science around cardiac rehabilitation and remote monitoring. Examples include the most optimal sensors and algorithms for home monitoring of behavior and health, how to interpret home measurements related to behavior, which algorithms can predict clinical deterioration in complex cardiovascular patients and how data can best be presented for both individual patients and caregivers.

Kemps believes that close collaboration between different disciplines can yield innovative ideas. "Engineers can design new technological applications, such as measuring instruments that allow patients to take measurements themselves at home. We already showed that this works, but now we are expanding the eligible group to older patients. We know from experience that patients over 80 are fully able to handle this technology, but we do need the help of designers to make sure that they actually use it. This requires instruments that are logical and easy to handle from home. We will also partner with specialist home care providers to perform nursing procedures at home if necessary.”

He continues: “In the hospital, doctors and nurses have to learn to deal with a situation where they sit behind a monitor, instead of a consulting room where they actually see the patient. And we need a lot of data to properly interpret the course of our patients' disease. Combining this different aspects, I believe we can keep our older patients out of the hospital as much as possible. That's better for the patient and helps ensure appropriate care at the lowest possible cost."

Master athletes

Kemps has an additionial interest which is related to sports. In combination with his other work, this results in a special field of research: senior athletes, or, what he calls, master athletes.

"We know that sports is healthy, also for senior endurance athletes. However, this group faces specific challenges. For some edlerly people, too much sport can lead to arrhythmia, for example. Fear of exercising can cause people to stop altogether, which can lead to a higher risk of cardiovascular incidents and depression. We want to help these people exercise responsibly, using wearables such as a heart rate or power measurement and coaching. To do this, we use sensors and an app to create a personalized and safe training program that gives them back their control and enjoyment of sports."

e/MTIC

TU/e and Máxima MC are part of e/MTIC, a large-scale strategic research collaboration in the field of cardiovascular, perinatal and sleep medicine, which also includes Philips Eindhoven, Catharina Hospital, and Kempenhaeghe Epilepsy and Sleep Center.

The partnership, founded in 2018, has a proven scientific and valorisation track record and currently includes more than 100 PhD candidates supervised by a similar number of partner experts. It has also led to the appointment of several care specialists as professors at our university.