Prospectus

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Medical Technology

Course
2024-2025

Admission requirements

See Brightspace for the admission requirements.
International Students should have an adequate background in Medicine. Admission will be considered based on CV and motivation letter.
For more information, please contact internationalisering@lumc.nl

Description

In modern medicine medical technologies (MedTech) are indispensable for the diagnosis and treatment of most disease processes. Having the ambition to be at the forefront of modern medicine, the LUMC is actively exploring innovation and implementation of MedTech in the form of medical devices.

Medical devices represent hard-and software that is used to diagnose, treat and/or improve patient health and wellbeing. This encompasses a wide range of devices, ranging between e.g. surgical gloves and autonomous surgical robots. Medical devices come in different safety categories and are subjected to strict regulations and design criteria. Valorization of new technologies requires regular use and commercialization, meaning a basic understanding of the underlying business models is needed. Multidisciplinary aspects that need to be understood to help ensure medical device yield clinical impact.

For treating physicians, it can be complex to select the medical technology that best matches their need. This is, in part, caused by the fact that basic training seldom addresses the aspect of applying MedTech in medicine. We reason that basic knowledge of the available MedTech helps to select the most appropriate technological method. To understand why a specific technique may be the most appropriate choice to diagnose a specific disease entity it is important to know the physical principles underlying these technologies.

One goal of this Half Minor module is to provide a general insight in the dos and don’ts of the selected MedTech applications. This is accompanied by assessment of innovative concepts such as 3D technologies, AI and robotics. Next to lectures and case discussions that provide background on the technologies and their application in specific areas, the participants will be able to obtain hands-on experience with technologies currently applied in the clinic during demos and hands-on sessions. Basic understanding of the matter will be tested in an exam, and during assignments and workgroups. Proficiency in the matter will be demonstrated by the participants final assignment.

This particular course will provide the students with insight in the role of MedTech within the LUMC. To cover all the different aspects involved in this multidisciplinary topic, the course is split in severalsub sections(themes):

  1. Robotics
  2. Setting up an impact plan and legal requirements
  3. 3D Technologies
  4. MedTech needs and possibilities in OR and IC
  5. Hospital and Sustainability
  6. Artificial Intelligence
  7. Use of of AR and VR in Medical Education
  8. Space Medicine

Each section discusses the role of MedTech in a specific application. These discussions will not only provide in-depth knowledge on the clinical challenges and technical advancements, but they will also focus on ongoing research efforts.

Course objectives

The student is able to:

  • Evaluate the role of MedTech in healthcare

  • Indicate the scope and limitations of the various MedTech applications

  • Establish which criteria (medical, physics and costs) are instrumental for the selection of an imaging modality/assessment

  • Evaluate (criticize and assess) the application of new MedTech avenues

  • Assess how artificial intelligence could help to efficiently process the wealth of information that is embedded in healthcare

  • Evaluate the different interventional strategies that can be pursued under image guidance

  • Apply the insight gained in business models, regulations and need for clinical impact to write a proposal fora specific MedTech topic

  • Indicate in which clinical situation technical innovations can be converted to clinical enablers•Evaluatethe (potential) value of MedTech in a medical issue of current societal interes

Timetable

All course and group schedules are published on MyTimeTable.

The exam dates have been determined by the Education Board and are published in MyTimeTable.
It will be announced in MyTimeTable and/or Brightspace when and how the post-exam feedback will be organized.

Mode of instruction

Lectures, practicals and workgroups.

Assessment method

Weekly assignments - effort, attendance, understanding learning objectives, etc.
Final assignment - create a clear impact/implementation plan for a medical technology of your choice:

  • Theory of change (logical link supply and demand)

  • Business case (realistic potential in today's society)

  • Sustainability (is the proposal future-proof?)

  • Regulation (under which conditions is implementation possible?)

  • Ethics (have the patient risks been taken into account?)

  • First-in-human implementation plan (statistics, feasibility, etc.)

The exam dates can be found on MyTimeTable.

Reading list

You can find the complete reading list for the bachelor of Medicine here.

Registration

Information about the registration process can be found on the Brightspace course Half Minors.

Contact

Dhr. prof. dr. F.W.B. van Leeuwen - F.W.B.van_Leeuwen@lumc.nl

Dhr. prof. dr. R.G.H.H. Nelissen - R.G.H.H.Nelissen@lumc.nl

Remarks