Medisign Specialisation

Medisign explores how to design products, services and systems to solve complex health challenges

As we face increasingly complex health challenges, there is an urgent need to rethink the fundamentals of our healthcare ecosystems. The Medisign Master's Specialisation at TU Delft IDE takes a transdisciplinary approach, equipping you with the tools and knowledge necessary to design, prototype and test innovative products, interactions, services and strategies that can realise a healthier future for individuals and societies.

Since 1998, the Medisign specialisation at TU Delft has evolved from the design of physical healthcare products to the design of interactions, services and systems. Students explore methodologies such as patient journey mapping, work on real-life projects with healthcare partners and gain insights from researchers developing novel design approaches. Over two years they build a health-related design portfolio, understanding the complexities of healthcare and contributing to creative solutions.

Learn more about Medisign here
 

The Specialisation


Use the tabs below to read more about the Curriculum, Electives, People, Information for Companies and Frequently Asked Qustions (FAQ)!

Medisign is a specialisation available to students enrolled in one of the following Master's programs in Industrial Design Engineering at TU Delft: Integrated Product Design (IPD), Design for Interaction (DfI), or Strategic Product Design (SPD). The Medisign Specialisation curriculum consists of three main components that are integrated into your Master's degree program:

A short description of the Medisign Electives can be found here. For more information, please refer to the Study Guide.

Medisign electives


Outside the Faculty IDE

Electives at other TU Delft Faculties can be taken if they are healthcare-related. Please consult with the Medisign coordinator before pursuing these electives to ensure they are suitable for the Medisign curriculum.

Outside the TU Delft

Electives at other universities in the Netherlands can be taken if they are healthcare-related. Please consult with the Medisign coordinator before pursuing these electives to ensure they are suitable for the Medisign curriculum.

We collaborate closely with companies, institutions, and NGOs, leveraging over 25 years of partnerships to develop design methodologies and tools for effective healthcare solutions. Partnering with Medisign means joining a collaborative network driving innovation, learning leading design methods, gaining new perspectives, and meeting researchers and future designers – all committed to shaping a healthier society. Companies can provide case studies for student group projects, offer internships or thesis assignments, participate in our Delft Design Labs, or work together with our leading IDE researchers. We are always looking for partners to drive change in the healthcare system. Contact us at Medisign-IDE@tudelft.nl to explore how you can be part of this mission.

 

 

Highlighted Projects


Use the tabs below to navigate through inspiring projects done within the Medisign Track!

Promoting exercise for kids with CHD by Hosana Morales Ornelas

Hosana Morales Ornelas aimed to help families with children who have Congenital Heart Defects (CHD) understand the safety boundaries of exercise.

Physical activity is essential for the development of children, but those with Congenital Heart Defects may suffer from a lack of opportunity to engage in physical activity, which can impede cognitive maturation, motor development, and autonomy. Parents may be overprotective of their children with CHD, preventing them from getting the exercise they need.

This study used Natural Language Processing techniques to analyze 305 online parental stories from various patient-association websites. The results showed the lifetime journey of these families, where an uncertain future evoked a constant search for symptoms. The findings were used during generative interviews with seven families with a CHD paediatric patient to understand the continuous search for symptoms during exercise. The combination of the insights gathered from interviews and the lifetime journey was presented to five medical team members to inspire a cocreation session.

The BO smart PSS aims to support parents and their children with a CHD to understand better the safety boundaries of exercise during free-living conditions. With an activity tracker and his nine system modules, Bo aims to guide the child through different heart rate zones defined by doctors. Furthermore, Bo has a conversational agent function where parents can send concerns to the medical team and find relief when seeing their child’s heart rate zone visualised in the physical activity path.

Gateway for aortic repair by Talitha Brenninkmeyer

Talitha Brenninkmeyer designed the Pentaport, a new gateway for complex endovascular aortic repair that minimizes blood leakage.

A ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is a serious condition that can lead to death. Endovascular surgery is a common treatment for this condition, but it can require the use of multiple tools through a single introducer sheath. This can lead to blood loss for the patient. The aim of this project was to develop a new, safe gateway for complex endovascular aortic repair.

Talitha explored the medical background through literature research and information collected from various field experts through interviews, observations, co-creation and design evaluations. This group of experts covers backgrounds in design, medicine, engineering, materials, production, medical device development, and business. This resulted in a stakeholder map, journey maps and rapid explorative prototypes. Ideas were developed using How-To questions and co-creation brainstorms.

This resulted in the Pentaport, a new gateway for complex endovascular aortic repair that minimizes blood leakage by splitting the sheath's central lumen into five separate, diverging tool entrances, each with its own valve. A leakproof ‘plug & screw’ connection facilitates safe and easy fastening to existing sheath hubs, ensuring optimal closure around an introduced tool, even after repetitive movement.

The consultation of the future by Hanneke van der Velden

Hanneke van der Velden proposes a tool to make the communication between patients and specialists more emphatic in the digital world of 2030.

The current healthcare system is not meeting the needs of patients in the on-demand society we are living in. The Erasmus MC wants to improve the patient experience by giving more personalised care. However, there are many barriers to this, such as the lack of knowledge around a disease and the lack of personalisation in the consultation. This project aims to explore consultation experience in the future context of 2030.

In this project, the current barriers of positive patient experience, before, during and after the consultation, are defined by an extensive literature and user study. Followed by an exploration of the future context of 2030 and an interaction vision for 2030 based on the analysis and the personal values and beliefs of Hanneke.

The proposed concept is a patient portal that aims to improve the communication between patients and specialists. The portal consists of three elements: a knowledge base, a data tracking system, and a consultation preparation tool. The knowledge base provides patients with personalised information about their condition, the data tracking system tracks the patient's data to provide more personalised care, and the consultation preparation tool prepares the consultation to start the conversation on the right foot.

 

 

 

Contact & More information