Join us for the event of the Cardiovascular Health Technology Centre launch on March 25, 2025, at the University of Twente's TechMed Centre. This event will feature an engaging program with expert speakers representing cardiovascular health technology themes at the University of Twente, including big data, AI, computational modelling, biomaterials, drug delivery systems, imaging, robotics, biomedical engineering, and personalized medicine and care. The event aims to bring together cardiovascular professionals from diverse scientific disciplines and clinical specialities to foster collaborations and advance cardiovascular health innovations.
The event aims to foster collaboration among researchers, clinicians, students, the industry and other professionals from diverse scientific and clinical backgrounds, to drive innovation and improve cardiovascular health. Two distinguished leaders in the field will deliver keynote talks: Professor Jolanda van der Velden (Amsterdam UMC, Chair of the Departments of Physiology & Experimental Cardiology) and Professor Pim van der Harst (University Medical Center Utrecht, Head of the Department of Cardiology). In addition to the presentations, the event will provide ample opportunities for networking and interaction, with a reception and drinks to follow. This is a unique opportunity to connect with thought leaders and pioneers in cardiovascular health research and to contribute to shaping the future of this vital field.
General information
- Date: 25 March 2025
- Time: 12.30 - 18.00 (12.30 - 13.00 Networking break)
- Location: TechMed Centre (building no. 18) on the campus of the University of Twente | Hallenweg 5, Enschede
- Language: English
- Format: Live event
For whom: Researchers, clinicians, students, and professionals in cardiovascular health and related fields.
The programme
12.30 - 13.00 | Walk-in & Registration |
13.00 - 13.15 | Welcome & Opening Prof. Robert Passier, University of Twente |
13.15 - 13.45 | Thematic pitches - Big data and artificial intelligence | Dr. Jelmer Wolterink, University of Twente
- Computational modelling | Dr. Kartik Jain, University of Twente
- Biomaterials | Annalise Anspach, University of Twente
- Biomedical engineering and personalized medicine | Dr. Verena Schwach, University of Twente
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13.45 - 14.30 | Keynote lecture Professor Pim van der Harst, University Medical Center Utrecht, Head of the Department of Cardiology |
14.30 - 15:30 | Demo's, posters & CAG-training tour During this break, you will have the option to: - Visit a variety of demonstrations and posters by researchers from the University of Twente in the Atrium
- Get a look (and feel) at the CAG training offered by the TechMed Academy and Thorax Centrum Twente. This course is designed for cardiology residents (AIOS) as preparation for the CAG internship. Participants gain hands-on experience with various aspects of the catheterization procedure, insight into the procedure itself, and a better understanding of their areas for development.
- Network and connect with other attendees
If you would like to be part of the opening event, by presenting a demo, a poster, or contributing in another way, please get in touch with us via n.a.vandeveerdonk@utwente.nl |
15.30 - 16.00 | Young@heart Rapid Fire Sesseion Young@Heart represents the interests of all young talents working in the cardiovascular field in the Netherlands, both in the clinical and preclinical arena. They bring together young, talented and ambitious scientists with an overall mission to secure the future of cardiovascular excellence in the Netherlands. |
16:00 – 16:30 | Thematic pitches - Part 2 - Cardiovascular imaging | Dr. Erik Groot Jebbink, University of Twente
- Drug delivery systems | Dr. Islam Khalil, University of Twente
- Medical devices | Ana Martins Costa MSc., University of Twente
- Rehabilitation and personalized care | Dr. Jasper Reenalda, University of Twente
- Technology Assessment | Dr. Mark Schuuring, University of Twente
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16:30 – 17:15 | Keynote lecture Building Muscle Strength: multidisciplinary research to match heart failure patients with the most optimal treatment Professor Jolanda van der Velden, Amsterdam UMC, Chair of the Departments of Physiology & Experimental Cardiology

Jolanda van der Velden, PhD, is Professor of Physiology, and chairs the Department for Physiology and the Department of Experimental Cardiology at the Amsterdam University Medical Center. The main research interest of the van der Velden group is to study the role of sarcomere proteins in cardiac performance. As mutations in sarcomere proteins are a frequent cause of heart disease, research on inherited cardiomyopathies is a central research line in Amsterdam, and experiments are performed from bench to the clinic. Expertise includes functional studies at single cardiac muscle cell and multicellular level, and mitochondrial studies in patient samples obtained during cardiac surgery and stem cell-derived heart models. Close collaboration with clinical departments allows translational research in which the functional studies in cardiac samples are combined with in vivo parameters of cardiac pump function and energetics. Moreover, methods have been developed to refine research in animal models, including high-throughput analyses of cardiomyocyte function. van der Velden has been actively involved in writing an advisory report, invited by the Netherlands National Committee for the protection of animals used for scientific purposes (NCad), on the current state of art in animal-free innovations and future perspectives, with the aim to come to a balanced view on studies in both animals and animal-free models for the coming years. In addition, she coordinated writing of a position paper by working groups of the European Society of Cardiology on recent advances in the reduction of animals for cardiovascular research based on the 3R principles: replacement, reduction and refinement, and thereby provide a guide to help researchers in their experimental design to bridge bench and clinic. This European position paper aims to provide support for the cardiovascular community by making a statement about the need of animals models for CV research, and pace at which animal models may be replaced by animal-free alternatives. She leads the Amsterdam 4R initiative, where the 4th R represents reproducibility of animal-free (stem cell) related models.
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17:15 – 17:25 | Closing words |
17:25 – 18:00 | Informal drinks |
Thematic pitches
1. Big data and artificial intelligence – Dr. Jelmer Wolterink Jelmer M. Wolterink is an associate professor in the Mathematics of Imaging & AI (MIA) group. His research interests include novel (geometric) deep learning methods for medical image analysis, with a focus on cardiovascular applications. He obtained is PhD at Utrecht University with a thesis on Machine-learning based analysis of cardiovascular images and was a postdoc in AmsterdamUMC. He is the recipient of an NWO VENI grant on Machine learning-based prediction of abdominal aortic aneurysm growth and rupture and was a participant in the DCVA Leadership Program.

He will present on the potential of artificial intelligence for personalized medicine in cardiovascular disease.
2. Computational modeling – Dr. Kartik Jain Kartik Jain is an Assistant Professor of Biofluid Dynamics at the University of Twente, The Netherlands. Kartik acquired his masters in Mechanical Engineering with a specialisation in Simulation Sciences from the RWTH Aachen University, Germany with a thesis on thrombosis modeling. After that he worked as a researcher at the University of Siegen in Germany and obtained a doctoral degree (Dr.-Ing.) with summa cum laude. His doctoral dissertation characterized transition to turbulence in biofluid flows such as blood flow in intracranial aneurysms and cerebrospinal fluid flow in the spinal canal. He contributed to the development of the APES simulation framework and enabled its scaling on largest supercomputers in Europe. His research team at the University of Twente develops numerical methods and tools to simulate physiological phenomena on large scale supercomputers. His research focus is on understanding of cardiovascular flows, CSF flow dynamics in the central nervous system and thrombosis in intracranial and abdominal aortic aneurysms.
In his presentation, he will provide an overview of the challenges in analyzing cardiovascular flows, emphasizing the pivotal role of computational modeling. He will share research examples, including studies on coronary flows and multiscale models of thrombosis, and underscore the importance of collaboration with clinicians and imaging specialists for model parameterization, as well as in vitro experimentalists for model validation. The presentation will also highlight the use of cutting-edge resources, such as European supercomputers and advanced experimental setups, to drive these investigations forward.

3 Biomaterials - Annalise Anspach Annalise Anspach is a PhD student at the Developmental BioEngineering group at the University of Twente. They acquired their master's in Advanced Materials and Processing with a specialization in Biomaterials and Bioprocessing at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität in Erlangen, Germany. Their current research involves developing a living mini human heart model for use in drug testing by leveraging advanced 3D printing techniques and human protein-based biomaterials. Their presentation will focus on the role biomaterials can play in cutting edge drug development models.
4. Biomedical engineering and personalized medicine – Dr. Verena Schwach Dr. Verena Schwach received her PhD from the Department of Anatomy and Embryology at the Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands, where she focused on subtype-specific cardiac differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) and cardiac repair. Currently, she is an assistant professor in the Department of BioEngineering Technologies at the University of Twente. Her research is dedicated to the differentiation of hPSCs and state-of-the-art genome editing for applications in studying cardiac development, disease modeling, and cardiotoxicity screening. Dr. Schwach's passion for working with hPSCs stems from their extraordinary potential to differentiate into every cell type of the human body. One of her greatest joys is coming to the lab to observe the spontaneously beating stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes.
At the opening of the Cardiovascular Health Technology Center at the University of Twente, Dr. Schwach will present the research theme of biomedical engineering and personalized medicine.

5 Cardiovascular imaging – Dr. Erik Groot Jebbink As a Technical Physician Erik Groot Jebbink is connected to both the M3i group at the University of Twente and Rijnstate hospital (dept. of Vascular Surgery). His research focuses mainly on the interaction between blood flow, vascular disease and endovascular treatment solutions. To study blood flow he develops and deploys high framerate ultrasound blood flow techniques, supplemented by microbubble injection for enhanced contrast.

6. Drug delivery systems – Dr. Islam Khalil Islam S. M. Khalil received his master's and doctoral degrees in Mechatronics Engineering. He is currently an Associate Professor in the RAM—Robotics and Mechatronics research group at the University of Twente. He held a position as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomechanical Engineering. His research interests include medical robotics and untethered magnetic micro/nanorobotics with applications in targeted drug delivery.

7 Medical devices - Ana Martins Costa Ana Martins Costa’s research focuses on the development of artificial organs, especially on a novel artificial lung and kidney assist device for the treatment of critically-ill patients. The development of this new device (RenOx) involves multidisciplinary studies related to membrane technology, in-vitro blood tests, and medical device design to translate clinical needs into a medical product. This project and other medical solutions are currently being developed in the Engineering Organ Support Technologies Group (EOST) at the Department of Biomechanical Engineering. Since collaboration from multiple fields is fundamental to advance medical technology, the EOST group combines the efforts of engineers, medical professional, and technical medicine specialists. In addition, the group is connected to the TechMed, (inter)national hospitals, medical device industry, standardization organization and relevant societies such as the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery (EACTS) and EuroELSO. The EOST works on three key areas that will be further discussed during the opening of the Cardiovascular Health Technology Center at the University of Twente:
- Device development: heart and lung support devices plus kidney support integration, such as the RenOx and the Artificial Placenta system.
- Simulators and Simulations for clinical education and training: OPCAP simulator, ECMO simulator, and cannulation simulators.
- Clinical treatments and outcome: Transfusion prediction and balancing, delirium prediction or prevention after cardiopulmonary bypass surgery, and mobilization of critically-ill patients.

8. Rehabilitation and personalized care – Dr. Jasper Reenalda 9. Technology Assessment] – Dr. Mark Schuuring Mark Schuuring is a Non-Invasive Cardiologist (M.D., Ph.D., FESC, FEACVI, FHFA) at the Medical Spectrum Twente and Researcher at the Department of Biomedical Signals and Systems. He is certified in CMR (level 3), TTE and TOE (Full; EACVI) and is alumnus of the Postgraduate Course in Heart Failure in Zurich. As a (co)supervisor of multiple PhD candidates, he focusses on eHealth and artificial intelligence solutions in Cardiology. Dr Schuuring published over 80 peer-reviewed articles, including papers in Nature Medicine, European Heart Journal – Digital Health and European Journal of Heart Failure (H-index 24) and received various grants (Nederlandse Federatie van Universitair Medische Centra, TKI-PPP Health Holland, Hartstichting, Amsterdam UMC, and Stichting Hartcentrum Twente). Founder of www.digitalcardiology.net

Registration
- Costs: Free
- Available spots: 100
Although this is a free event, it's important to remember that registration is not optional. If you cannot attend the event you've already registered for, please kindly notify us by contacting us (latest 3 days in advance). - Contact: techmed-events@utwente.nl
Organisation
About the Cardiovascular Health Technology Centre
At the University of Twente, we have a team of multidisciplinary experts dedicated to advancing cardiovascular health by leveraging cutting-edge technologies and collaborative research efforts. Our goal is to pioneer preventive measures, explore new diagnostic and therapeutic avenues, and develop practical bedside solutions in partnership with hospitals to address clear clinical needs. This collaborative approach ensures comprehensive care for patients while fostering the development of innovative healthcare solutions for cardiovascular diseases. We actively explore and stimulate collaborations between academic and private partners, hospitals, medical centres, and health, societal, and patient organizations. Together, these efforts aim to enhance our understanding and treatment of cardiovascular diseases, ensuring that our initiatives have a broad and lasting impact on public health.
Under the umbrella of the Cardiovascular Health Technology Centre, our collective focus encompasses prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and patient care within the cardiovascular field, leveraging advanced technologies. This convergence of expertise aims to harness technological innovations in the cardiovascular field to reduce mortality and improve health and overall well-being. Our collaborative endeavour is poised to identify and bridge existing knowledge gaps and address unmet needs.

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