Are you eager to work in a multidisciplinary team to improve sleep apnea treatment? The Biomedical Diagnostic (BM/d) Lab at the Eindhoven University of Technology (TUe, department of Electrical Engineering) is seeking two outstanding PHD candidates to work in close collaboration with the Máxima Medical Center, Center for Sleep Medicine Kempenhaeghe and Philips Research.

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is one of the most prevalent sleep disorders, with serious short- and long-term health consequences. The most common treatment of choice is continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), which -when tolerated and used adequately- can significantly improve sleep quality, daytime symptoms, and cardiovascular health sequelae. However, in practice 40% to 80% of all CPAP patients become nonadherent to treatment. Other therapies such as mandibular advancement and positional therapy are becoming more widely used, also as first line therapy choice, or in case of non-compliance to CPAP.
Current measures of treatment success focus on functional aspects of the therapy such as number of hours and nights of use, but very poorly reflect the development of the symptoms of the patient. Furthermore, the few studies that have focused on exploring physiological characteristics that influence treatment response have been focused on measurements at the sleep lab for only one night, often at the very beginning of the therapy.

The first 100 nights of OSA therapy are decisive for the longer-term success of the treatment. In this project we will capitalize on our advanced (wearable) sleep sensor technology to follow the first 100 days of therapy in a cohort of newly diagnosed OSA patients. The experiment will run at the Máxima MC sleep center, a clinic with vast experience in the diagnosis, and management of sleep apnea.

The aim of this project is to 1) find structural sleep and respiratory parameters that predict effectiveness, as well as tolerance and compliance to the different OSA therapies and 2) track these parameters over time to monitor treatment effectiveness and its relation to the evolution of symptoms and the possible development of sleep disruptions later on. These insights will help formulate strategies to improve therapy selection and personalization, predict treatment success, and improve long-term adherence.

In this project we have two PhD vacancies:

PhD 1 will focus on measuring the effect of treatment on sleep architecture, applying newly developed measures of sleep architecture such as survival dynamics, hypnodensity and multi-night analyses, on data acquired with wearable photoplethysmography and actigraphy.

PhD 2 will focus on the objective and subjective evaluation of treatment response and prediction of treatment success, not only taking into account clinical outcome parameters such as treatment compliance and residual symptoms but also daytime functioning and subjective measures of (perceived) success.

When applying please express any preference for either of the positions. It is also possible to apply for both in one application.

Environment

TU/e

Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) is one of Europe's top technological universities, situated in the heart of one of Europe's largest high-tech innovation ecosystems. Research at TU/e is characterized by a combination of academic excellence and a strong real-world impact. This impact is pursued via close collaboration with high-tech industries and clinical partners.

The Biomedical Diagnostics (BM/d) lab of the Signal Processing Systems (SPS) group is part of the Electrical Engineering department. The BM/d lab has a strong track record in electrophysiological signal processing, physiological modelling and quantitative analysis of biosignals, ranging from ultrasound and MRI to electrophysiology. For more information, see here.

In the Healthcare field, TU/e is part of a large collaborative multidisciplinary research program called the Eindhoven MedTech Innovation Center (e/MTIC). One of the central themes within e/MTIC is improved diagnosis and treatment of sleep disorders. For this project we are looking for a PhD candidate who will be appointed at TU/e, but also embedded for a part of his/her time at Maxima Medical Center, Kempenhaeghe and Philips Research, all located in the direct vicinity of TU/e.

We are looking for an enthusiastic researcher with a background in health-related research, who enjoys working in a multidisciplinary team with academic, clinical and industrial partners. Main requirements are:

• A MSc degree (or planning to obtain MSc in the near future) in Medical, Health or Life Science or related relevant fields (e.g. Technical Medicine, Biomedical Signal Processing, Cognitive Neuroscience, Sleep Medicine).
• Experience in conducting biomedical human experiments in clinical and home settings using physiological parameters. Knowledge of sleep and sleep analyses is a pre.
• A strong and demonstrable background in methodology and experienced with physiological signal analysis, data processing and statistical methods.
• Can think out of the box, distinguish main lines from details, and provide structure to their work;
• Excellent multidisciplinary team working and communication skills in research & clinical professional settings as well as patient-facing.
• Written fluency in English, for internal reporting and external publications.
• Spoken fluency in Dutch and English.

• A meaningful job in a dynamic and ambitious university with the possibility to present your work at international conferences.
• A full-time employment for four years, with an intermediate evaluation (go/no-go) after nine months.
• To develop your teaching skills, you will spend 10% of your employment on teaching tasks.
• To support you during your PhD and to prepare you for the rest of your career, you will make a Training and Supervision plan and you will have free access to a personal development program for PhD students (PROOF program).
• A gross monthly salary and benefits (such as a pension scheme, pregnancy and maternity leave, partially paid parental leave) in accordance with the Collective Labor Agreement for Dutch Universities.
• Additionally, an annual holiday allowance of 8% of the yearly salary, plus a year-end allowance of 8.3% of the annual salary.
• Should you come from abroad and comply with certain conditions, you can make use of the so-called '30% facility', which permits you not to pay tax on 30% of your salary.
• A broad package of fringe benefits, including an excellent technical infrastructure, moving expenses, and savings schemes.
• Family-friendly initiatives are in place, such as an international spouse program, and excellent on-campus children day care and sports facilities.