Last week, UTBM andthe Hôpital Nord Franche-Comté reached a milestone in their collaboration with the official signing of a joint chair dedicated to technological innovation in support of hospital practices.
A story that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic, when, within 24 hours, engineers and medical staff joined forces to adapt a Decathlon Subacqua mask and make it available to intensive care workers amid a shortage of protective masks.
Some six years later, more than 20 projects addressing real-world challenges have been launched through a partnership between UTBM and HFNC, involving healthcare professionals, faculty members, and more than 200 engineering students, including five senior capstone projects. These are concrete projects with a significant societal impact that support healthcare teams while fully embodying the engineer’s sense of responsibility.
Three matches were highlighted
- The project by Nahila Himer, a clinical research nurse, andAngèle COMBES, a mechanical and ergonomics engineer from the Class of ’22, who are working on a prototype transport hoist for intensive care patients. This project, initiated and supported bythe UTBM Innovation CRUNCH Lab (Marjorie Barcella), aims to make the transport of bedridden, heavily equipped patients more efficient and safer.
- The project by Sylvie Crelerot, nursing coordinator at the pain center, and Jules Ferlin, a computer engineer from the Class of ’22, who developed an app to streamline the management of patients and healthcare providers in pain care (assessments, consent forms, treatment records, etc.). The app was developed with the help of two local companies, Isara Technologies (Thomas Martinet) and TRINAPS, particularly to ensure secure data hosting.
- Finally, the project by Laurence Gandon, Director ofIFMS Nord Franche-Comté, andAlexandra Laduguie, a computer science engineer from the Class of ’22, focuses on developing tools to simulate hallucinations in psychiatry. This equipment (headsets, sleeves, etc.), combined with software, reproduces patients’ auditory, visual, or kinesthetic hallucinations. It is a valuable tool for nursing students to experience and better understand what certain patients go through.
Optimizing hospital workflows, deploying artificial intelligence, inclusive innovation and disability, training… the challenges are many, and the story continues in the service of the common good
