Keynotes

Stay informed about the next TechMed Event
KEYNOTE LECTURE: 09.50 - 10.10
Drs. Bas van den Dungen
Director-general Curative Care - Ministry of Health, Wellfare and Sport

Vision of Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport on medical technology

Since March 1th of 2014, Bas van den Dungen (1966) has been Director General Curative Care at the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport. His package includes hospital care, mental health care, district nursing and primary care, such as general practitioners, dentists and physiotherapists. Other subjects for which he is responsible are the role of health insurers and the health insurance law, good governance in health care, the position of the patient, the drug policy. Prior to this, Bas van den Dungen was a director at Koninklijke Kentalis, a national organization for care and education for people with an auditory or communication impairment. Before that he worked as a director at the National Home Care Association. He started his career at the Ministry of Finance. Bas van den Dungen studied Public Administration at the University of Twente, specializing in Public Finance.

KEYNOTE LECTURE: 11.15 - 11.45
Dr. Peter N. Burns
Professor of Medical Biophysics and Radiology - University of Toronto & Senior Scientist - Sunnybrook Research Institute

Myth and Reality of Translation: A Bubble’s story 

All of us in biomedical research are aware that have to satisfy our peer reviewers and funding agencies that the work we propose offers a reasonable expectation of translation to clinical practice. We can argue (at our peril) that translation is just around the corner, or try to reason (with equal peril) that our work is in basic science and will provide insight that should eventually benefit healthcare in some unspecified way. The pressure we feel has been referred to in a Nature editorial, somewhat bitterly, as ‘the tyranny of translation’. But what does clinical translation really mean, and in reality, what does it take to achieve? Here we will tell an exemplary - and cautionary - tale close to us in Toronto, but also to many researchers in Twente and Rotterdam and beyond: of the clinical translation of microbubble contrast for ultrasound imaging. It begins more than two decades ago as a curiosity in fluid physics and ends today with more than 15 million patient studies worldwide and the opening of a new era in noninvasive therapy with sound. A success story, perhaps, but one with some pretty spectacular scientific, commercial and regulatory failures on the way. The story helped us temper our expectations of the impact of our work, but did not prepare us for surprises that included the arbitrary and capricious decisions of a US government agency, finally - and incomprehensibly - in our favour.

KEYNOTE LECTURE: 12.10 - 12.40
Dr. Jonne Doorduin Assistant Professor - Technical physician - Radboudumc

Dr. Jonne Doorduin works as technical physician at the department of Neurology - Clinical Neurophysiology, Radboud university medical center. He will talk about his clinical work and research activities. The latter focus on respiratory muscle function in patients with neuromuscular diseases. Respiratory muscle weakness is a cardinal feature in many neuromuscular diseases and is often primary cause of death. In spite its importance, the availability of diagnostic tools and therapies for diaphragm weakness is limited. Work in his lab aims to develop and evaluate new technologies for diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic strategies to improve quality of life for patients with respiratory muscle weakness. His clinical work involves intra-operative neuromonitoring. He has broad experience with different techniques to monitor the central nervous system in the OR, such as transcranial electrical stimulation, cortical mapping, deep brain stimulation, and dorsal column stimulation.