Development of a textile-integrated sensor system for feedback-supported rehabilitation after anterior cruciate ligament surgery

The project "KneTex" (EFRE-0801285) is sponsored by the European Regional Development Fund North Rhine-Westphalia (EFRE.NRW) and is supervised by the LeitmarktAgentur.NRW / Leitmarktwettbewerb LifeSciences.NRW.

Project duration

• Implementation period 01.01.2019 - 31.12.2021
• Grant period 01.01.2019 - 31.12.2022

Project partners

• Institute for Experimental Psychophysiology (IXP)
• Bache INNOVATIVE
• The Hochschule Niederrhein, Faculty of Health Care (FB10)
  • Prof. Dr. rer. medic. Martin Alfuth
  • Jonas Klemp, M.Sc. Sports Physiotherapy, B.Sc. PT (Scientific assistant in the project)
• The Hochschule Niederrhein, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (FB03)
• Hochschule Niederrhein, Faculty of Design (FB)
• Hochschule Niederrhein, Faculty of Textile and Clothing Technology (FB07), FTB

Project short description

Aim of the project: The research project KneTex deals with the development of a textile-integrated sensor system for feedback-supported rehabilitation after surgery of the anterior cruciate ligament. The aim of this research project is the development of a knee brace with integrated sensor technology for the identification of harmful movements and feedback function for the purpose of immediate correction of the incorrect movement.

Relevance of the project

With the help of the KneTex knee brace, unhealthy movements are to be identified and localized by detecting the position and angle of the knee, the relevant leg muscles and the context of the movement. With appropriate feedback actuation, harmful movement patterns should be corrected immediately. It enables the reduction of recurrence and complication rates of patients with surgically treated anterior cruciate ligament tears and independent application by the patient in everyday life.

Innovative approach

The combination of textile technology methods, sensor technology, embedded IT with corresponding analysis procedures and actuator technology using novel technology in the design of the electronic components serves not only to record the position and angle of the knee, but also the activity of the relevant leg muscles and the movement context in fine resolution.

Modern feedback methods ensure that the movement sequence is directly influenced at the moment of occurrence, with simultaneous long-term reorientation in the movement sequences.

Simple application even in the home environment is determined by robustness in use with scientifically based evaluation of effectiveness and user acceptance.

Task

• Development of a sensor textile considering an optimal processing of the strain sensors and the integration of sensor-functionalized sequins.
• Fusion of the sensor technology of a sensor patch and the textile bandage.
• Establishment of a suitable power supply and data readout of the sensor technology.
• Analysis of acquired data for the purpose of identifying unfavorable motion sequences.
• Identification of optimal localization, timing, intensity and duration of feedback and appropriate implementation.
• Determination of stimulus and stimulus thresholds in test persons for the provision of feedback by the textile.
• Validation of the textile using established methods of instrumented motion analysis.
• Initial collection of data during the application of the textile on test persons
• Optimization and further development

Interdisciplinary use of health data: DIM.RUHR project enters second phase

The project "DIM.RUHR: Data Competence Center for the Interprofessional Use of Health Data in the Ruhr Metropolis" trains researchers and healthcare providers in the competent handling of health data. With increasingly large amounts of data being generated in the healthcare sector, initiatives in inpatient care have been promoting the development and use of this data. However, data-based research on outpatient care has received relatively little attention thus far. New interdisciplinary skills are necessary to handle data appropriately in this area. For approximately a year now, these skills have been consolidated in the project "DIM.RUHR: Data Competence Center for the Interprofessional Use of Health Data in the Ruhr Metropolis," funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). After a successful start, the project is now entering its next phase.

Over the past few months, scientists from Witten/Herdecke University (UW/H), Ruhr University Bochum, the University of Applied Sciences for Health, Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences, Fraunhofer ISST, ORCA.nrw, and the ZB MED Life Sciences Information Center have developed a comprehensive concept to strengthen interprofessional data competence in outpatient care and make this data usable for research. In the second phase of the project, now commencing, the theoretically outlined plans and measures will be put into practice. Among other things, the research team will initiate teaching, research, and networking opportunities aimed at enhancing the data competence of healthcare providers and researchers and improving the quality of data generation, storage, dissemination, and use.

Development of tailor-made offers addressing the needs of teaching, research, and practice

"A professional understanding of how to handle healthcare-related data is crucial for making outpatient care more efficient and effective in the long term," says Prof. Dr. Sven Meister, Chair of Health Informatics at UW/H. "It is important for us to develop application-oriented services in DIM.RUHR that meet the needs of individuals involved in health research." To facilitate practical application and promote the networking of research, care, and practice, experimental spaces will be created where students can experiment with data-generating systems and work with existing datasets. The „GesundheitsDatenRepository.RUHR“ (health data repository) will also make the resulting data accessible for healthcare-related research questions.

About the Project

The project "DIM.RUHR: Data Competence Center for the Interprofessional Use of Health Data in the Ruhr Metropolis" involves the University of Witten/Herdecke, Ruhr University Bochum, ORCA.nrw, Bochum University of Applied Sciences for Health, Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences, Fraunhofer Institute for Software and Systems Engineering, and ZB MED Information Center for Life Sciences. Additionally, DIM.RUHR collaborates with national structures such as the Medical Informatics Initiative, GAIA-X, and the Health Research Data Center. It is funded by the BMBF under the funding code: 16DKZ2008A - DIM-RUHR.

Further information: More details about the project can be found on the Witten/Herdecke University website.

You can direct any questions about the project to Anne Mainz.

Contact person - press team: Svenja Kloos | 02302 926-9043

iFoot - Improvement of cross-institutional care in the field of diabetic foot syndrome (DFS) through eHealth

Diabetic foot syndrome (DFS) is a secondary disease of diabetes mellitus, which affects about 15% of all patients with diabetes. It persists for a lifetime and manifests itself in poorly healing wounds and fractures of the lower extremities, which in the worst case end in amputation. According to the Diabetic Foot Network in Cologne, the expenditure for the care of DFS is approximately 2.5 billion euros per year and thus accounts for the majority of the costs associated with diabetes. iFoot is an ERDF-funded (European Regional Development Fund) joint project in the lead market competition Gesundheit.NRW, which aims to optimally support the course of action of patients with DFS through eHealth. An interdisciplinary team of medical computer scientists, health care managers and engineers led by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Hubert Otten is developing an intelligent bandage equipped with sensors that measures parameters such as pressure, temperature and humidity and reports them via APP to the patients and the attending physicians. The project started on January 1, 2019 with a duration of three years and has a total volume of around 1.5 million euros. Other project partners are St. Vinzenz-Hospital GmbH and the Centrum für Integrierte Diabetesversorgung (CID) GmbH, which will test the smart bandage as practice partners in a pilot study from August 1, 2020 for one year. The ideal partners sanafactur GmbH, Initiative Chronische Wunden e.V. and Netzwerk Diabetischer Fuß Köln und Umgebung e.V. support the project with a lot of important information.

Bed management 4.0 - More safety and resources through bed management 4.0 in hospitals

The hospital bed is of central importance in inpatient care. Deficits in cleaning, storage and maintenance cause material and personnel costs that should not be underestimated and endanger the health and safety of patients. The Bed Management 4.0 project is an ERDF-funded (European Regional Development Fund) joint project in the IKT.NRW lead market competition, which aims to achieve holistic, life-cycle and demand-oriented process orientation in hospitals.Within the project, hardware and software components are being developed that enable the status query and localization of a bed at any point in time and thus provide an overview of the total inventory, life cycle, upcoming replacement investment, thus optimizing the overall processes and reducing the risk of infection for patients and personnel. The project start date was December 1, 2019, with a duration of three years and a total volume of approximately 1.1 million euros. Under the consortium leadership of medmehr GmbH, the joint partners FH Dortmund, Ruhr University Bochum, Deutsches Krankenhausinstitut e.V. and the Hochschule Niederrhein under the leadership of Prof. Dr.-Ing. Otten are working together. As ideal practice partners, the project consortium is supported by St. Marien-Hospital Mülheim an der Ruhr GmbH, St. Josef Krankenhaus Moers, Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft für Krankenhaustechnik e.V. (WGKT) and Fachvereinigung Krankenhaustechnik e. V. supported.

ENQuIRE - Evaluation of Quality Indicators of Emergency Departments for Outcome Relevance for the Patient.

The collaborative research project ENQuIRE attempts to close knowledge gaps with regard to the relationship between quality criteria and patient-related outcomes of treatment in an emergency department. In a scientific observational study, treatment data based on the emergency department protocol are linked to the billing data of a health insurance company. In this way, it will be possible to investigate the health status of patients before emergency room treatment and how their health developed afterwards. The results of the project will lay the foundations courses for standardized and comprehensive quality management in emergency departments.

Potentially avoidable hospital admissions for chronic diseases in Germany
Outpatient-sensitive chronic diseases, such as heart failure and diabetes mellitus, are considered to be well controlled with adequate outpatient therapy, which is why hospital admissions for these main diagnoses are potentially avoidable. Population-based rates of ambulatory-sensitive hospital admissions are used internationally as indicators of access to and quality of ambulatory care. The aim of this research project is to calculate outpatient-sensitive admission rates at the small-area level, analyze them in spatial and temporal terms, and identify possible determinants in vulnerable populations.

Hospital Standardized Mortality Ratios (HSMR) are used internationally as indicators of outcome quality and patient safety despite critical discussion. A nationwide survey of HSMR in Germany has not yet been conducted. The aim of the project is to calculate the risk-adjusted mortality for all German hospitals.

Currently, a large number of different eStandards are used in Health Care. The eCommerce in Health Care project offers the opportunity to establish interoperability of these existing standards and, as a consequence, to realize considerable potentials for economic efficiency. An essential result of the project is the development of concrete orientation and implementation guidelines as a prerequisite for the creation of sufficient interfaces between the different sectors and companies. In a demo center, which is to simulate the real environment, as many actors as possible in the logistics chain will be interoperably networked on the basis of the target process analysis and the implementation guidelines as well as on the basis of a specification sheet.

Further research activities and projects of the faculty can be found on the web pages of the professors as well as on the pages of the competence centres.