Consortium

TUDELFT develops new, cutting-edge scientific insights which underpin the necessary technological breakthroughs. The TUDELFT conducts multidisciplinary research and design projects at the very highest international level. Education and research are inextricably linked and form a strong basis for knowledge valorisation. TUDELFT has over 20,000 students and 5,000 staff, all of whom are driven by a fascination for science, design and engineering. Our university is not only the oldest but also the largest university of technology in the Netherlands.
The objectives of the Minimally Invasive Surgery and Interventional Technology (MISIT, http://www.misit.nl) group of the Department of Biomechanical Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering are to combine the expertise from both the engineering experts of the MISIT-group and the collaborating clinical experts in multi-disciplinary research teams, and to produce the highest level of research in the field of human-instrument-patient interaction and technology that enables safer minimally invasive treatments. We aim to follow the entire track from fundamentally new technology to commercially viable end-products and strive to combine scientific output with the development of novel prototypes.  
The MISIT group has received e.g. five valorisation grants from the Dutch Technology Foundation.  The research within MISIT resulted up to now in seven spin-off companies, among them SIMENDO and MediShield. The MISIT group has participated in projects related to minimally invasive surgery: MISTELA: 528125-LLP-1-2012-1-UK-LEONARDO-LMP; IIIOS 238802 MARIE CURIE INITIAL TRAINING NETWORK and FUSIMO Collaborative project 270186 FP7

 

The MISIT Group will provide the necessary pedagogical expertise to implement the skill training methods into the EASIER environment, leading the work package related to defining the pedagogical needs and contributing to the user model with methods for quantitative assessment of skill training (WP3). The TUDELFT is part of Medical Delta in which Leiden University Medical Centre, Erasmus Medical Center and TUDELFT are collaborating together. Furthermore, we have clinical experts in our group, as well as partnerships with the aforementioned medical centres and the Academic Medical Center Amsterdam. Hence we have multidisciplinary expertise on board which will be necessary for case study definition (WP4) and clinical validation of the LMS (WP7).

Jenny Dankelman

Prof Dr Jenny Dankelman is head of the MISIT (Minimally Invasive Surgery and Interventional Techniques) group. Prof Dr Jenny Dankelman has a degree in Mathematics, with specialisation in System and Control Engineering. For 15 years she has been researcher at Man-Machine Systems group, TUD, and since 2001 as professor in Biomedical Engineering. In 2007 she became head of the Minimally Invasive Surgery and Interventional Techniques group (http://www.misit.nl) consisting of 10 PhD students, 4 Postdocs, 2 Technicians and 3 staff members. Her work focuses different application fields: minimally invasive surgery, flexible endoscopy, needle interventions and endovascular interventions. She is (co-) author of over 150 publications. The research within the MSIIT group resulted in multiple spin-off companies. She is cooperating with surgeons of several (academic) hospitals. Her interests and research projects are in the fields of designing novel medical (steerable) instruments, medical haptics, training and simulation tools, and patient safety, with the focus on minimally invasive techniques.

Tim Horeman

Dr Tim Horeman received his MSc degree in Biomedical engineering from the Delft University of Technology with specialization in BioMechatronics and minimally invasive surgery and medical safety in 2008. Tim did his PhD research in the Minimally Invasive Surgery and Interventional Technology (MISIT) group of the department of Biomechanical Engineering of the TUDELFT and Gynaecology department of the Leiden University Medical Centre. During his PhD research he developed novel training systems equipped with force and motion tracking systems that provide feedback to the user. In 2009, Tim founded the company MediShield BV that recently launched a commercial version of the developed trainers in the USA, Europa and Arabic countries. After his PhD research in May 2013, Tim started as project leader on the Steerable Punch project, a collaboration between universities, international and national operating companies that aims on the creation, development and clinical validation of a new steerable punch for arthroscopic surgery. A second part of his research involves validation (of the force feedback modules) of the new educational program of the ForceSence training systems.

Frank Willem Jansen (MD)

Prof Frank Willem Jansen is appointed as professor, both at the Delft University of Technology (dept. Biomechanical Engineering) and at the Leiden University, Medical faculty (dept. Gynaecology) since 2009. In this field his assignment is Clinical evaluation of Minimally Invasive Surgical Instruments. Since 2000 he founded and leads the Section of Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) at the Department of Gynaecology at the Leiden University Medical Centre. His medical degree was received at the University of Groningen and he went on to complete his residency in Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the Leiden University, The Netherlands, followed by a visiting fellowship at Stanford University in the US. His expertise has been (inter)nationally recognized by many endoscopic societies, who invited him as co-author in consensus documents and clinical guidelines and for several expert lectures. He initiated the mandatory course on Minimally Invasive Surgery in gynaecology in The Netherlands and organized this for the last 15 years. He is also an active faculty member and teacher of several accredited Dutch courses on Laparoscopic and Hysteroscopic surgery. In recognition of his scientific interest, he became the chairman and organiser of several Scientific programmes of (inter)national Congresses and post graduate courses. In 2010 he was elected as the president of the Dutch Association of Endoscopic Surgeons (NVEC).