Demographic changes induce an ever-higher burden on the healthcare system. Early detection of complications and diseases and the determination of effective personalized treatments are essential to lower this burden, to prevent comorbidities, and to lower healthcare costs while simultaneously improving patient outcome and quality of life. The PISANO project seeks to leverage technological advances in pathophysiological modeling, unobtrusive sensing, monitoring and artificial intelligence (AI) towards this end. As part of the PISANO project, this PhD position addresses the need for improved hemodynamic measurements in critical care. The main hypothesis is that the standard hemodynamic monitoring technology might not be used up to its full potential. This project explores how to adapt existing critical care technology for the purpose to improve existing measurement quality, or developing new measurement strategies, aiming at extracting new parameters and obtain early and comprehensive information on the hemodynamic status of patients at risk of deterioration.

A major thrust is on radical innovations towards widespread use of ultrasound (US) technology. Cuff with integrated US might enable continuous peri-operative monitoring to detect hemodynamic instabilities earlier and with higher accuracy. More in general, using such new non-invasive smart measurement technique aims to replace current invasive methods to monitor functional hemodynamic parameters, which reveal useful for early detection of patient deterioration and for guiding critical care treatments.

The position is available within the Biomedical Diagnostics (BM/d) research lab, part of the Signal Processing Systems (SPS) group (Electrical Engineering department, TU/e), and it involves tight collaborations with the Catharina Hospital Eindhoven and Philips, as part of the Eindhoven MedTech Innovation Center (e/MTIC).

Consortium partners

The BM/d lab at TU/e is devoted to model-based quantitative analysis of medical images and bio-signals, with the goal of improving patient care and management. In the context of perioperative care, we focus on modeling and analysis of bio-signals, taking into account the full measurement chain, with the goal of improving diagnosis and prognosis, and enabling long-term monitoring. 

The Catharina Hospital Eindhoven is a large clinical and teaching medical center hospital in the Eindhoven area specialized in cardiovascular disease, obesity and oncology and serves as tertiary referral center in several areas. The departments of Anesthesiology, Cardiology, Intensive care, (cardiothoracic) surgery and laboratory service participate in many international trials and actively contribute to the development of diagnostic devices and clinical decision support systems.

Royal Philips is a leading health technology company with the purpose to improve people's health and well-being through meaningful innovation. Aim is to deliver superior, long-term value
to customers and shareholders, while acting responsibly towards our planet and society, in partnership with the stakeholders.

We are seeking a highly motivated master graduate with a strong background and interest in the analysis and interpretation of biomedical signals.

We are looking for candidates that meet the following requirements:

• Master degree in Electrical Engineering, Applied Physics, or Biomedical Engineering
• Background in medical signal processing and analysis
• Excellent education track record
• Good analytical skills
• Affinity for working in an interdisciplinary and highly international environment.
• Affinity with experimental work
• Fluent in spoken and written 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.