DUTCH DESIGN WEEK 2022

e/MTIC DDW22 projects

Dutch Design Week (DDW) is the largest annual design event in Northern Europe. Hosted in Eindhoven, it presents work and concepts from more than 2,600 designers to more than 355,000 visitors from home and abroad.

Four e/MTIC projects at Dutch Design Week 2022

During the 2022 Dutch Design week 22-30 October, four major e/MTIC projects were on display at various locations. At  Strijp-S -Ketelhuisplein, the TU/e Drivers of Change exhibition presented the projects FORSEE, Perinatal Life Support (PLS) and ACACIA. In the Klokgebouw at the Embassy of Health section, you could find the Pregnancy Risk Flagging System (PRFS) as part of the MEDUSA project. An even more extensive presentation of the ACACIA (Improving cancer care with human-centred AI) project was displayed at the Philips Museum.

Perinatal Life Support (PLS)

Every year, 588,000 babies are born extremely preterm (<28 weeks of age) worldwide. These infants are usually transferred to an air-based neonatal intensive care unit to support their heart and lung development. Exposure to air, however, leads to many complications, because the lungs are not fully developed yet. The Perinatal Life Support (PLS) project aims to develop a novel, alternative environment, more similar to the mother’s womb. In this PLS system, extremely premature babies would be transferred to an environment where the lungs remain filled with fluid and the umbilical cord will be attached to an artificial placenta to improve their organ development and ease the transition to newborn life. This project aims to increase the chances of survival for extremely premature babies and not to change the viability threshold.

Advancing Cancer Care with human-centered AI (ACACIA)

Pancreatic cancer is one of the world’s deadliest cancers and is often detected at a late stage. Its treatment is difficult, especially in cases where the tumor is located close to blood vessels. Solutions for earlier detection will help radiologists and surgeons to more precisely determine the timely and appropriate treatment. This solution deploys artificial intelligence (AI) to provide doctors with answers to these questions. Using AI, the concept generates an intuitive 3D anatomical model on a holographic screen based on CT scans. The image enables doctors to more easily determine the tumour’s location and size in relation to the surrounding blood vessels. The surgeons can then make more accurate choices for treatment and/or surgery.

This project obtained 4 awards in 2022:  IF DesignRed DotUX Design and IDEA

PICTURES DDW22

To get an impression of the Dutch Design Week 2022 and the participating e/MTIC projects, we created a small photo album were you can find some informal pictures of this wonderful and exiting event.

Pregnancy Risk Flagging System (PRFS)

Pregnancy Risk Flagging System (PRFS), this app identifies potential clinical health risks that may arise during the pregnancy as early as possible. The system empowers and guides pregnant women to accurately report and log any symptoms or discomfort in real-time via a user-friendly multi-lingual app. An algorithm analyzes the reported symptoms in real time and raises a digital risk flag to alert professional caregivers when symptom patterns indicate a potential health risk. 

This project has been nominated for the UX Design Awards 2022.

Video monitoring for early signaling of adverse events (FORSEE)

In hospitals, a high percentage of unexpected deaths occur in nursing wards. This is related to the limited extent to which patients are monitored in these wards. Surveillance equipment is expensive and it is not pleasant for patients to be constantly connected to all kinds of devices. The FORSEE project aims to solve these problems with a smart camera that registers heart rate, respiration, temperature and movement to predicts whether the patient's health suddenly deteriorates. This innovative technology is contactless and therefore does not burden the patient, costs potentially less, and requires less work from healthcare staff. Most important, patients can be monitored continuously, allowing timely intervention in the event of acute deterioration.