Projects

What are the technological megatrends in the healthcare sector? What is Bochum in a position to contribute? We identify trends and create platforms: for interdisciplinary exchange, cooperation and technology transfer. We bring together prospective partners and implement projects, including project management and the acquisition of public funding, transforming scientific results from universities in Bochum into marketable products.

The Health Campus Agency Bochum is always looking for promising projects. If you have an idea or are looking for a partner for your project, please get in touch with us.

Our information brochure will give you an overview of our projects:
information brochure – Strong Nerves, sharp Senses

People who are blind or have visual impairments naturally have some difficulties getting around in everyday life. The main aids so far have been guide-dogs and white sticks.

The research project RaVis-3D has set itself the aim of making great improvements to everyday support: funded by NRW and the EU (EFRE), stakeholders from the worlds of business and science are developing technology which registers the surroundings using radar and turns the information into audio signals and provides it for the user via a hearing aid in real time. It helps users to recognise obstacles and estimate distances enabling them to move relatively naturally within their surroundings. To ensure it is user friendly, people with visual impairments have been involved in these developments from the start. The project is supported by the Bochumer Institut für Technologie gGmbH (BO-I-T), which takes care of the project management and PR.

For RaVis-3D, Bochum is the best location. Dirk Kampmann, managing director of Kampmann Hörstysteme GmbH and, due to his comprehensive knowledge and experience in the field of audio output, lead manager of the project, explains why: “The experienced support provided by the BO-I-T, the Economic Development Agency and the Health Campus Agency Bochum means innovations in our city can move quickly from research into real applications. Even while products are being developed, plans are made for how to market them and make them available to patients as quickly as possible.”

Contact:
Dirk Kampmann
Managing Director Kampmann Hörsysteme GmbH

Tel.: +49 234 45303-4984
dk@kampmann-hoersysteme.de
www.kampmann-hoersysteme.de

Mirko S. had a car accident twelve weeks ago. He can’t remember exactly what happened. The devastating news after his operation: paraplegia. He is now being treated at the University Clinic Bergmanssheil (BMH) and is already taking his first “steps” towards a new life.

Mirko would never have thought that an exoskeleton developed in Japan would get him moving again in Germany. For a few months now, he has been training every day at the Centre for Neurorobotic Movement Training (ZNB). Prof. Dr. Yoshiyuki Sankai, CEO of CYBERDYNE Inc Japan, designed the HAL®System, the Hybrid Assistive Limb, at Tsukuba University. Today the robot suit is marketed through Cyberdyne Care Robotics GmbH (CCR) in Bochum – this is no coincidence either, but the result of many different parties working together closely. As Prof. Dr. Sankai also wanted to establish the HAL®System on the European market, so the Health Campus Agency Bochum (AGC BO), chip GmbH and many established members of the MedEcon-Network together with the State of NRW and the NRW Japan K. K. to prepare way for them to set up in Bochum.

Consulting company contec GmbH and the Bergmansheil clinic helped Prof. Sankai with all organisational, bureaucratic and location-related matters. They made sure that the necessary studies were carried out and that the system could be used quickly in Germany. This formed the basis for introducing this innovative technology throughout the whole of Germany and beyond. An established environment consisting of companies, clinics and researchers in the field of prosthetics is waiting for more cooperations in Bochum. Prof. Dr. med Thomas A. Schildhauer, Medical Director at BMH, explains: “Opening the ZNB is the result of great cooperation across all levels of the ecosystem in Bochum’s healthcare sector. That is what distinguishes Bochum!”

Contact:
Uwe Brockmann
Managing Director Cyberdyne Care Robotics GmbH

+49 234 587300-5
Uwe.brockmann@ccr-deutschland.de
www.ccr-deutschland.de

Auditory training at home – from Bochum.

Language is the key medium for human communication and is closely linked to hearing. Limited hearing ability often has a huge impact on people’s lives and can even lead to social isolation.

In Bochum the “Train2Hear” project group comprising science, business and industry experts developed and tested a teletherapeutic, practice-based auditory training for people in the initial stages of hearing loss and wearers of cochlea implants. The digital auditory and language training enables people to practice on their own at home with guidance from speech therapists.

This research project is funded by the European Fund for Regional Development (EFRE). Prof. Dr. Kerstin Bilda, lead manager of the project and Vice President of the Research Division at the Hochschule für Gesundheit (University of Applied Sciences for Healthcare) talks about “Train2Hear”: “The interdisciplinary cooperation between the Hochschule für Gesundheit, the ENT Clinic, Kampmann Hörsysteme and the company Q2Web is the distinguishing characteristic of this project and provides excellent conditions for developing a successful digital system for speech therapy-based auditory rehabilitation.”

Prof. Dr. med. Stefan Dazert, Director of the ENT Clinic at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum continues: “The strong practical orientation of this project and the excellent patient involvement means we develop medical products with patients for patients. The location of Bochum also provides us with an excellent network and infrastructure for acting and positioning ourselves well beyond the region.”

Contact:
Prof. Dr. phil. Kerstin Bilda
Lead Manager of the Project

Tel.: +49 234 77727-610
kerstin.bilda@hs-gesundheit.de
www.hs-gesundheit.de