The Department of Industrial Design of the Technische Universiteit Eindhoven (TU/e) is looking for a
PhD-student in Design, Development, and Evaluation of Remote Patient Management Tools for Heart Failure Patients
About the projectWe are seeking one PhD candidate for the MEDical Engineering, Innovations and Applications (MEDEIA) research project. This project aims to enhance and implement remote patient management in patients with heart failure in the full health care chain involving the Netherlands Heart Network (5 regional hospitals and 3 large care groups of general practitioners). The PhD research takes a patient-centered and healthcare professional-centered approach to optimize patient value (i.e. patient-relevant outcomes divided by costs) and evaluate this in healthcare practice. Currently, implementation of a regional remote patient management program is already ongoing.
You will be part of an innovative multi-disciplinary teamThis project is part of the Eindhoven MedTech Innovation Center (e/MTIC). e/MTIC is a public-private partnership aimed at creating and growing an ecosystem that offers a fast track to high-tech health innovations. Within this ecosystem, we aim to create impactful innovations in the cardiovascular domain, through close multidisciplinary collaboration between an academic partner (Eindhoven University of Technology), top-clinical hospitals (Maxima Medical Center, Catharina Hospital Eindhoven) and industrial partners (Philips Research and Philips Experience Design). This PhD position will be embedded in a multidisciplinary team of PhD candidates with clinical, psychological and design expertise. These candidates will closely collaborate and share data and methodologies as complementary focus points of each PhD position.
This PhD positionAlthough remote patient management is generally considered an important step towards sustainable healthcare, clinical evidence and implementation research are still lagging behind. This PhD position is centered around the
design and development of existing and novel technological applications to enhance remote care in heart failure patients that encourage long-term use and trustworthy engagement, and that also seamlessly fit into complex clinical workflows. The evidence and knowledge gathered during the Ph.D. will be incorporated into existing (regional) remote care pathways to further improve the experience of healthcare professionals and heart failure patients with remote care.
In this position you will:
- Conduct hospital field studies to analyze barriers and facilitators for remote patient management among all stakeholders involved in the care of high-risk heart failure patients
- Redesign the remote patient management care pathway building on previous research and novel insights by taking a patient-centered and healthcare professional-centered approach
- Set-up a data infrastructure and develop AI-powered tools for supporting professionals with clinical decision making and patients with self-management. You will make use of a combination of real-world data and data from quality registrations
- Conduct experimental studies to research the effect of design interventions on patient value, acceptance of technology and compliance
Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e,
www.tue.nl ) is one of Europe's leading research universities. The Eindhoven area, in the southern part of the Netherlands, is one of Europe's top 'innovation ecosystems', with many high-tech companies and institutes. TU/e is intertwined with many of these companies and institutes, and research at TU/e is characterized by a combination of academic excellence, industrial relevance and societal interweaving. The
Department of Industrial Design (ID) of the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), founded in 2001, is a maturing department with over 650 students, both Bachelor and Master, and around 40 research staff members and about 10 lecturers. The mission of the department of Industrial Design at TU/e is Research on and Education in
the Design of Systems with Emerging Technologies in a Societal Context. The PhDs will be under the supervision of dr. Hareld Kemps (Department of Industrial Design at TU/e and cardiologist at Maxima Medical Center), dr. Mathias Funk (Department of Industrial Design) and dr. Jeroen van de Pol. At the TU/e, the positions are situated within the research cluster of 'Future Everyday'. The Future Everyday cluster investigates the everyday interactions between individual people and the highly interconnected technology that surrounds them. Researchers measure, model and design for the user experience when individuals interact with social-technological networks in their homes, at work, in transit, while doing sports or going out. The project will be executed in close collaboration with the NHN; the PhD student will therefore also be working at and interacting with the regional hospitals collaborating hospitals situated in Southeast Brabant within the NHN.
Prospective starting date: February 2023.