The trio of research projects focus on sustainable operating rooms, zero-emission endoscopy, and technological innovations for nurses, respectively. They will receive €200,000 annually for four years from Erasmus MC to work on finding sustainable healthcare solutions.

The programmes were selected by Convergence Health & Technology, a collaboration between TU Delft innovators, Erasmus MC clinicians, and EUR sociologists and economists.

“We face major challenges in healthcare, such as an increasing demand for care with a tight labour market and limited resources,” said Stefan Sleijfer, chairman of the Erasmus MC Executive Board. “In addition, as a healthcare system, we harm our living environment with all the waste we produce. Only together can we solve these challenges sustainably.”

Erasmus MC clinical technologist Bart Cornelissen, TU Delft associate professor Theresia van Essen, and Erasmus School of Health Policy & Management associate professor Martina Buljac will work on the ‘SMART OR2023’ project. In studying the operating room of the future, they will explore how AI and technological innovations will be used to plan, optimally deploy available resources, and support staff.

Said Cornelissen: “There is scarcity in the operating room; the capacity cannot cope with the increasing demand for care. We want to investigate how we can make the operating room more efficient with technological innovations while improving the wellbeing of our operating room colleagues.”

Together with EUR professor of sociology of healthcare Iris Wallenburg, TU Delft professor of human-robot interaction David Abbink and Erasmus MC professor of nursing science Monique van Dijk are the project leaders of ‘Technological innovations for nurses, improving efficiency and workplace attractiveness’.

At the outset, five post-doctorates will work with a team of nurses, as happened in a previous pilot, to ensure successful implementation.

“The workload for nurses is high,” said van Dijk. “Technological innovations could ease the workload, but their implementation is often complex. The risk is that they end up not being used in day-to-day practice.

Abbink added: “Robots often end up gathering dust in a corner.”

The final research study will focus on endoscopy – described as the third largest department in a hospital in terms of environmental impact.

That has to change, according to Erasmus MC hospital pharmacist and programme co-ordinator, research sustainable care Nicole Hunfeld; TU Delft professor of design for inclusive sustainable system interventions Jan Carel Diehl; EUR professor of purchasing and supply management in healthcare Erik van Raaij; and Erasmus MC doctors Peter Siersema and Pieter-Jan de Jonge of the ‘Transition towards Zero-Emission Endoscopy’ (ZEE) consortium.

By uniting expertise from the three institutes, the research team want to analyse the flow of materials from the endoscopy department and develop interventions with less environmental impact.

Said Hunfeld: “We have to reduce the ecological footprint of healthcare. And we would like to start with the transition to sustainable endoscopy.”