Health
"From Innovation to Application"
Moderators: Jorge Uquillas Paredes and Anne Loonen
Purpose of the Innovation Café Session Health was to present the new collaboration between Fontys Engineering and Fontys Applied Science and Paramedical Sciences around Applied Biomedical Sciences and Engineering (ABSE). Click here to download the one pager about ABSE.
Take ownership
Jorge Uquillas Paredes, researcher and lecturer in Mechanical Engineering, gave a short presentation on the education programme and opportunities for setting up new research projects around ABSE. At this moment there are different biomedical engineering projects in different Fontys Institutes spanning from biosensors, digital twining of the knee to bioreactors to cultivate articular cartilage. The goal is to define clear research tracks that Fontys can excel in. The challenges that ABSE will address come from patients and health care professionals (patient-centered). The focus will be on innovation in healthcare. Another goal is to maintain strong connections and crosstalk with industry. Important is that students that are interested in this field want to try and test something that brings clear value to their educational path and the companies where we get the challenges from. “Our students should be enthusiastic in taking ownership of a project. Developing knowhow instead of following established paradigms” The future master program (MSc in ABSE) we want to develop at Fontys focuses on a broad field of expertise instead of the University master which is more focused on basic and fundamental research. We aim to become a partner that complements the expertise of TU/e. You can download the ABSE Roadmap here.
Glow in the dark diagnostics (LUNAS)
Yosta de Stigter, PhD-student from TU/e, went into more detail on an ongoing research project between different Fontys institutes, TU/e, health care providers and MREs: RAAK PRO project Molecular Diagnostics to general practitioner (for sexually transmitted diseases). The testing method in this project is based on “Glow in the dark diagnostics”. Another point the PhD student raised was that to make a technical innovation viable, it is best incorporated into an application. Anne Loonen, lector Life Sciences, stressed that the expertise from the Fontys research group Applied Natural Sciences complements the expertise from the TU/e.
Commercialization
After this presentation, a discussion ensued about the commercialization of a product and the rules associated with it from healthcare. For Fontys the goal isn’t to take a product to the market. We are a high-education institution focused on applied research, not a research institute focused on product development. The research groups within Fontys focus on gaining knowledge and preparing young professionals as adequately as possible for the professional field. We want to establish long-lasting partnerships within Fontys to secure tech and knowledge transfer from students to the institutes upon graduation. We want to ensure that projects have a steady involvement of students (researchers) with constant support and funding from the institutes within Fontys. If products result from the practice-oriented research, they leave the commercialization to the industry as this is not the main focus of Fontys.
Validation and legislation
From the professional world, there is a need for students who realise that a medical innovation also requires validation and legislation. How will you teach students that? In the research phase they are usually involved in, it is not yet about validation and legalisation. One way to familiarise students with these topics is to have them collaborate in a consortium that involves a teacher researcher. In this way, they contribute to the research and pay attention to validation and legislation.
Contact
Do you have a question about this session or want to know more about Applied Biomedical Sciences and Engineering (ABSE)? Please contact:
