Recap of the TechMed Research Day 2026

The day opened with the plenary interactive session Depends On How You See It by Dr Jur Koksma (Radboudumc). He showed how art, imagination and reflection can help us look at patients, colleagues and our own work differently. He also raised a thought-provoking question: how do we measure quality? In doing so, he made clear that every measurement is shaped by underlying choices and values. The closing drawing exercise playfully demonstrated how differently people perceive, interpret and communicate, while also encouraging participants to stay open to one another’s presentations, new ideas and different perspectives throughout the rest of the day.

Later in the afternoon, Dr Maarten Moen, Medical Director at NOC*NSF and Chief Physician to the Dutch Olympic team, delivered the concluding lecture ‘Fifth Place in the Olympic Medal Table: Enforced by MedTech’. In his talk, he illustrated the wide range of challenges elite athletes face throughout the year. He stressed the importance of keeping them healthy and helping them recover as quickly as possible. Medical technology plays a crucial role in this, enabling closer monitoring, earlier intervention and more effective recovery support. As Moen put it: “We believe that the use of medical technology not only helps keep elite athletes healthier but can also enhance their performance.”

During the day, the scientific program consisted of six sessions with a total of 30 presentations and six moderated poster tours with 52 posters. In these three parallel sessions, PhD students, postdocs, and master's students presented their work and then engaged with junior and senior researchers. In each session, the junior researcher in the audience who enthusiastically participated in the discussion with good questions and suggestions received the 'discussion incentive award'. All attendees were able to rate the presentations and give feedback by adding a top and a tip to the score sheet.

The presentations reflected the broad scope of the TechMed community and showcased the variety of research across the domain. From technological innovation to clinical application, the sessions demonstrated both scientific depth and societal relevance, while also creating space for valuable discussions, new encounters and new connections.

A distinctive part of the 2026 programme was the energetic and interactive afternoon session dedicated to the 'Hospital of the Future'. Under the inspiring leadership of Francesca, Roberta and Yutong, the participants got to work creatively with the Health Innovation Hackathon, where they worked in teams on ideas for a future healthcare system with significantly fewer staff. Through Lego constructions, mini-magazines, and short films, they visualised what healthcare could look like in 2040.

At the same time, more than 80 colleagues attended the discussion on the new Way of Working within the Health Domain, where they contributed ideas about the moonshot Hospital of the Future with a remarkable level of engagement. The session made it clear that the energy and willingness to jointly determine direction are great, but also that a few follow-up meetings will be needed to really give shape to this new way of working together.

At the end of the day, six researchers received a prize for their presentation based on the feedback from the audience and the scores for the submitted abstracts. The three best poster presentations and the three best oral presentations were rewarded with a TechMed Centre hoodie and a ticket for the upcoming TechMed Event on 5 November 2026.

Winners – Oral presentations

• Pauline Fonteijn (EEMCS-AM-MOR): A roadmap to regional collaboration among home care and care home organizations considering employee preferences
• Isa Porsul (TNW-BET-DBE): Engineering better organoids: controlling cell organization with microgels
• Nikki van Loenen (EEMCS-EE-BIOS): Urine-based point of care devices for cervical cancer screening

 Winners – Poster presentations

• Alice Correia (BMS-HBE-IEMS): Spatiotemporal Analysis of Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest
• Inge de Heer (TNW-BET-AOT): Enhancing dialysis membrane hemocompatibility by GAGs grafting during membrane fabrication
• Chris Petri (EEMCS-AM-MOR): Deciding on Patient Admission in Aftercare

Lucia Romano (TNW-BET-AOT), who presented the poster ‘Development of outside-in filtration hollow fibers for artificial placenta system', won the special 'Valorisation Potential Award’. This award was offered by Roy Kolkman, head of the Knowledge Transfer Office at Novel-T, the Knowledge Transfer Office (KTO) of the UT. Lucia received a €100 cheque.

The TechMed Research Day is an annual internal event of the TechMed Centre of the University of Twente. On this day, researchers, students, and professionals come together to share knowledge, meet one another, and make new connections in medical technology. From the TechMed Centre, the TechMed team offers researchers support in the design and execution of research, including in the field of human subjects research, regulation, implementation and the use of shared facilities and research infrastructure.

Would you also like to experience how research, technology and practice come together? Then visit the TechMed Event on 5 November 2026 and discover how we are working together on the hospital of the future.

TechMed Research Day 2026 photo album

Recap: 

drs. M.M.J. van Hillegersberg - Hofmans (Martine) Communications advisor TechMed Centre

+31534896949

 m.vanhillegersberg@utwente.nl

Building: Spiegel Tuin

Building: Technohal 2134

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