Quantitative Analysis in Neonatal Healthcare: Detecting Delta Brushes with the Wavelet Transform

In the Netherlands the preterm birth rate is around 7%. The problematic part is that these preterm infants make up for 72% of all deaths during or shortly after birth. To provide a way to aid these infants the following question was stated by the doctor: "turn on a light in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit when the preterm infant’s development...

Critical audible alarm-sound design for handheld monitoring devices in Neonatal ICUs

This graduation thesis is on the topic of Critical audible alarm-sound design for handheld monitoring devices in Neonatal ICUs. Hand-held mobile devices are being tested in the field for effective alarm perception and response in the NICU at Erasmus MC Sophia's Hospital, Rotterdam. Based on the context analysis, the major stakeholder, and the...

Prolonged Ex vivo Preservation: Creating a Normothermic Machine Perfusion Setup

Expanded Criteria Donor (ECD) organs are being used more often in clinical setting. The regenerative ability of the organs might be able to restore the organ to full functionality ex vivo. For long term kidney stabilization, optimization and monitoring an organ incubator is preferable. However, it is unclear which available parts would work best...

Optimizing Alarm Management in the NICU: Designing Interfaces for supporting nurses to customize Alarm Limits

In the realm of healthcare, the effective management of alarm systems within the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) is of paramount importance to ensure patient safety and reduce alarm fatigue among nurses. This study presents a comprehensive exploration of designing interfaces tailored to nurses' needs for adjusting alarm limits, aimed at...

Towards a quieter neonatal intensive care unit: evaluating and visualizing soundscapes to raise awareness on sound-producing events

A soundscape is the acoustic environment that is constantly surrounding us. Soundscapes in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) might adversely affect neonates, their families, and healthcare providers. In this unit, the number of alarms and nuisance is very high, and studies show that it negatively affects both the well-being of patients and...

Dynamic Vital Sign estimation for Multiple Persons using mmWave technology

When a patient is in a hospital, it is very important to monitor their vital signs. Doctors and nurses use this information to assess the condition of the patient. Most of the existing vital signs measurement devices need physical contact with the patient. This thesis focuses on a non-contact vital signs estimation method. Using a mmWave radar,...

Safety Investigation of Millimeter Wave Radar to Monitor Vital Signs in the NICU

Neonates are among the most fragile in the human population. Even more so when born prematurely. Their loss of development time in the womb disrupts their growth, and the neonatal intensive care unit environment can add multiple stresses that hinder their development. This can partly be attributed to the intrusive environment of a neonatal...