The UT and IRCAD-IHU from Strasburg, France are joining forces in order to improve patient healthcare by integrating technological innovations into medicine. The three institutes will work on joined research in the field of image-guided surgery and minimally invasive robotic surgery. Even though the collaboration has already begun, today´s meeting was held in order to promote it further and to fully introduce all the involved parties.
Stimulating collaboration
IRCAD-IHU is one of the world´s leading forces if it comes to training and innovation in the field of minimal invasive surgery. IHU is the institute for image-guided surgery that functions as a centre for treatment, research and training in the field of minimally invasive surgical techniques. IRCAD is a private institute focused on disorders of the digestive system and has a strong international network with centres in Brazil and Taiwan. At its core, IRCAD is a training centre closely connected to a neighbouring hospital and every year it trains over 4000 surgeons. With this expertise, IRCAD-IHU can offer great facilities for UT students and researchers.
'Healthcare is a huge focus of the UT: 20% of our students are involved in healthcare. We want to work in this field on an international level and to ideally have collaborations that come from within the research itself - like in this case. Such a collaboration is very stimulating,' thinks Maarten Ijzerman, the Dean of Health and Biomedical Technology at the University of Twente.
Technical Medicine: unique concept
The University of Twente, on the other hand, can - among other things - share its knowledge and skills in the field of Technical Medicine, a unique and highly promising program bridging medicine and engineering. 'Every time I come to Twente, I´m amazed by this program,' says Bernard Dallemagne, the Scientific Director of IRCAD. 'It would be difficult to establish this concept in France, but hopefully we can learn from your ideas and progressively incorporate it into our educational system.'
