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Strategy & Facilities

Innovation Strategy

At the Smart Health Tech. Center (SHTC) we listen, observe and are amazingly curious. We care about people (patients and their family, staff and students, innovators of health tech companies and knowledge institutions) deeply and this empathy fuels the work at SHTC.

At SHTC we look across the entire healthcare journey for opportunities to solve problems and improve together through co-creation and participation. We work forward-thinking, creating new concepts – with a goal of integrating them into care as quickly and safely as possible.

The best way to make significant improvements to patient health and care delivery is to test and experiment quickly at low cost – scaling only once we and our partners find high impact solutions. Most successful innovations did not follow a linear route during development.. Since getting it right the first time is rare – small tests, experiments and rapid prototyping make more sense before implementing large scale testing, experimentation and/or validation. Centralization increases the efficiency of projects by providing roadmaps, protocols, legal and medical ethical support, contract and IP templates, sharing experience and knowledge.

The SHTC provides a structured organization and ideal environment for generating knowledge, developing, testing, experimenting, validating and implementing existing and new smart health technologies (both products and services) in a real-life setting. All with a focus on clinical need and impact for end-users (patients and health care professionals).

Collaboration Strategy

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Facilities

Erasmus MC is one of the largest university hospitals in the Netherlands and has a broad range of in-house facilities and (data-)infrastructures. Erasmus MC also has access to external facilities at partner hospitals, universities and municipalities through networks and collaborations in the South Holland region, the Netherlands and Europe.

These facilities can be built-up and/or used as mock-up settings, field-, living-, and innovation labs through which we can deliver testing, experimentation and validation services for smart health tech innovations.

 

Our academic hospital

Our research facilities

Erasmus MC research facilities are available to Erasmus MC researchers as well as affiliated institutions and third parties.

Erasmus MC research facilities provide state-of-the-art technologies including specialized facilities, specialized equipment, innovative processes and valuable data collections. Skilled facility personnel deliver professional advice and guidance.

Below you find a few examples of what research facilities Erasmus MC has to offer:

 

The Generation R Study

The Generation R Study is a prospective cohort study from foetal life until young adulthood in a multi-ethnic urban population. The study is designed to identify early environmental and genetic causes of normal and abnormal growth, development and health from foetal life until young adulthood. Eventually, results forthcoming from the Generation R Study have to contribute to the development of strategies for optimizing health and healthcare for pregnant women and children. Spring 2017 Generation R launched a new cohort study: Generation R Next. An important aim of Generation R Next is to study the health and lifestyle of a mother to be before pregnancy and the effects on the growth and development of her child.

Read more.

 

ERGO – The Rotterdam Study

The Rotterdam Study is a prospective cohort study ongoing since 1990 in the city of Rotterdam in The Netherlands. The study targets cardiovascular, endocrine, hepatic, neurological, ophthalmic, psychiatric, dermatological, otolaryngological, locomotor, and respiratory diseases. As of 2008, 14,926 subjects aged 45 years or over comprise the Rotterdam Study cohort. Since 2016, the cohort is being expanded by persons aged 40 years and over.

Read more.

 

Experimental Medical Instrumentation (EMI)

Innovative partner in the development of unique medical instruments and experimental set-ups. EMI has the following expertise: Micromechanics and precision engineering, 3D-modelling and printing, Optics and Fiberoptics, Electronics.

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Artificial intelligence Labs at Erasmus MC

Regarding artificial Intelligence (AI) as a partner in healthcare, two dedicated AI labs are being set up. Researchers, tech businesses joining forces to make this happen at Erasmus MC, funded by the Dutch Government. One of the Labs focusses on ‘From 112 (the Dutch emergency number) to rehabilitation:  improve the patient journeys of patients suffering from a stroke and the other lab on ‘Improving MRI’: An MRI scanner that determines the protocols in advance by providing information about the patient. One that can adjust itself during the scan using information from the first series of scans. Or one that doesn’t have to start over if the patient moves during the scan, but can correct motion artefacts automatically.

Read more.

 

For a more extensive overview of the available research facilities at Erasmus MC, See here.

 

Our innovation settings, mock-up, field-, living labs and specialized testing & validation set-ups.

 

Within the Erasmus MC, different set-ups are possible to fulfill the testing, experimentation and validation needs for your product. Please contact us for more information on the possibilities.

 

Below you find a few examples of what facilities Erasmus MC has to offer:

 

Smart Patient monitoring Living Lab (LivSense)

Coordinated research, development, and testing of generic wireless sensor monitoring systems in the real life setting of multiple departments. Scientific experiments and observations of patients and health care professionals in interaction with these systems, coextensive with the everyday workflow.

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Center for Ultrasound Brain imaging at Erasmus MC (CUBE)

CUBE is the first dedicated ultrasound center in the world and holds an extensive and diverse expert team with the singular purpose of unveiling the mysteries of the human brain. We are working around 3 main themes, namely

  • Whole-brain Functional Imaging: Functional Ultrasound (fUS) to measure brain activity;
  • Image-guided neurosurgery: focus on improving oncological neurosurgery by imaging and fUS
  • Next-generation ultrasound technology: focus on computational ultrasound to get better images.

Read more

 

Consultation Room 2030

Healthcare has traditionally centered around the bricks and mortar of a hospital. Regardless of the medical complaint or the location, be it the GP’s office, the hospital, an out-patient clinic, an emergency room, the doctor-patient interaction takes place within the domain of the Consultation Room. Consultation Room 2030 will facilitate cross-disciplinary collaboration to develop, test and integrate digital technologies to empower patients, enhance the preparation of medical consultations and support direct doctor-patient contacts.

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Skills & Simulation Center

Skills & Simulation Center (SCC) is the place to be to train important surgical, nursing and non-technical skills for high quality and future proof healthcare. Skills & Simulation Center can facilitate development, integration and testing of innovative digital technologies aimed to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of education and training, e.g. virtual reality tools.

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Outcome-based personalized care & counselling in Head & Neck cancer

  • WHY? Provide tailor-made and appropriate future proof (Head & Neck) cancer care and counselling to
    strengthen patient empowerment in both the curative and palliative phase.
  • WHAT? With healthcare tools as our ePRO-structure and individualized prognostic models in easy-to-use dashboards.
  • HOW? Using outcome data and communication technologies on two levels:
    • Individual-level: strengthening patient empowerment and decision-making: 1) for professional use in the consultation room
      and 2) for patient use enhancing self-management within a controlled environment of remote cancer care & monitoring.
    • Population-level: quality improvement of the healthcare trajectory by continuous learning from aggregated outcome data.

Read more

For a more extensive overview of the available innovation facilities at Erasmus MC, see here.

Networks

European University Hospital Alliance

A network of nine of the best university hospitals in Europe sharing their expertise in healthcare, research and education.

Pandemic & Disaster Preparedness Center (PDPC)

Erasmus MC, TU Delft and EUR are building a Pandemic & Disaster Preparedness Center (PDPC). This knowledge center brings together top scientists with knowledge of pandemic threats and climate-related calamities to build an ambitious research agenda for the future. The Pandemic & Disaster Preparedness Center will be based at Delft University of Technology and Erasmus MC. Eventually, a joint location will be sought for the Convergence, where the PDPC can also perform its work. The PDPC will of course also work closely with the Netherlands Centre for One Health, where a multitude of institutes already conduct multidisciplinary research on outbreaks of infectious diseases, and where Marion Koopmans plays an important role.

Read more here

European Reference Networks

ERNs help professionals and centres of expertise in different countries to share knowledge.

ECHO: European Children's Hospitals Organisation

ECHO advocates for children’s health and their access to the best quality care through the collaborative work of children’s hospitals.

GAME is a strategic international network of medical schools that share a common interest in promoting innovative medical education and undertaking impactful research

The Human Brain Project

The Human Brain Project aims to put in place a cutting-edge research infrastructure that will allow scientific and industrial researchers to advance their knowledge in the fields of neuroscience, computing, and brain-related medicine.

Health Research Infrastructure initiative (Health-RI)

Health-RI is a public-private partnership of organizations involved in health research and care. More than 70 organizations in the Netherlands endorse efforts to build an integrated health data research infrastructure accessible for researchers, citizens and care providers.

The Dutch Techcentre for Life Sciences (DTL)

The Dutch Techcentre for Life Sciences (DTL) is a public-private partnership of more than 45 life science organisations in the Netherlands.

HollandPTC

HollandPTC is an independent outpatient centre for proton therapy, scientific research and education, based in Delft. It was founded by Erasmus MC, LUMC and TU Delft.

Institute for human Organ and Disease Model technologies (hDMT)

The hDMT institute (Institute for human Organ and Disease Model technologies) is a precompetitive non-profit technological R&D institute, initiated in the Netherlands.

The Netherlands Centre for One Health (NCOH)

The Netherlands Centre for One Health (NCOH) aims for an integrated One Health approach to tackle the global risk of infectious diseases.

Oncode

Oncode is an independent institute dedicated to understanding cancer and translating research into practice.

Dutch Artificial Intelligence Coalition (NL AIC)

The Dutch AI Coalition (NL AIC) aims to stimulate, support and where necessary organize the Dutch activities in AI field. The NL AIC wants the Netherlands to become a frontrunners in Europe in the field of knowledge and application of AI. The NL AIC brings organizations together to tackle the challenges of these areas of application with AI, including government social missions.

Convergence

The TU Delft, the highest ranked university of technology of the Netherlands, and Erasmus MC, the largest university medical centre in the Netherlands, together have the expertise, resources, facilities and drive to profoundly impact on the future of health and healthcare in the Netherlands and beyond. We now wish to move beyond traditional ways of collaboration to a new way of joining forces.

BeterKeten

BeterKeten is an initiative that stimulates, facilitates and supports collaboration between health care institutions in the Rijnmond region. Projects are related to patient care and / or scientific research, with the interests of the patient being paramount.

Leiden-Delft-Erasmus (LDE)

The LDE alliance works closely with societal partners in South-Holland (such as municipalities and provinces) to contribute more effectively to the development of the region. The network is also intended to strengthen the effectiveness and position of the three cooperating universities at both national and international level. The partnership is based on four societal themes: Sustainable Society, Inclusive Society, Healthy Society and Digital Society.

Medical Delta

Network of life science, health and technology partners.

EHDEN

The Electronic Health Data in a European Network (EHDEN) Consortium leverages the Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems and other types of health databases to improve future clinical practice and individual patient outcomes by increasing our understanding of disease and treatment pathways. EHDEN will galvanize transparent and reproducible analytics that will generate valid real-world evidence to improve patient care, and enable medical outcomes-based research at an unprecedented scale. The EHDEN Consortium provides the infrastructure and eco-system supporting disease-specific projects in the IMI Big Data for Better Outcomes (BD4BO) programme.