Friday, July 11, 2025
For quite some time, June 27th had been marked on the calendars of 88 Clinical Technology students: the date of their final presentations. Two student teams won a Medical Delta KTO-WOW! Award for their achievements.
Clinical Technology is a joint program of Delft University of Technology, Erasmus MC, and Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) and has had strong ties with Medical Delta since its founding in 2014. Students are trained as clinical technologists, a professional group that combines medicine and technology.
At the annual KTO Symposium, final-year students in the Bachelor's program in Clinical Technology present their graduation research (the ‘KTO’: Clinical Technological Research). The students receive their final grade; their presentations are evaluated by a jury. The best presentations receive an award. “A strong class,” is how coordinator of the Clinical Technology final projects, Dr. ir. Arjo Loeve, described this year's graduates.
'Extravasation Detection System'
When applying intravenous chemotherapy drugs, the drug can leak outside the blood vessel. One of the winning student teams researched a way to quickly detect this so-called ‘extravasation.’ It is crucial that this is detected in a very early stage, as complications range from mild pain to swelling, severe tissue damage, or, in rare cases, even death.
The student team developed a portable detection system that detects extravasation in a timely manner. Much research and further development is still needed, but the initial findings are a promising step towards clinical implementation of automated extravasation detection in chemotherapy. The team won a Medical Delta KTO WOW! Award for this.
Real-time feedback on shoulder exercises
Subacromial Pain Syndrome is one of the most common forms of shoulder pain. Rehabilitation exercises can reduce the symptoms. But how do the practitioner and the patient know that the exercise is being performed correctly?
To provide feedback on this, a student team developed a software module that emits near-real-time audio signals when the exercise is performed correctly. The test results were positive, laying the foundation for further development of a rehabilitation aid for this type of shoulder pain. This team also won an award.
Another notable study was a phantom study on the use of iodinated contrast agent used in CT scans. This contrast agent is very harmful to the patient's kidneys, expensive, and also highly polluting. The study demonstrates that by using a different scanning technique (detector-based spectral dual-layer CT), less of this agent can be used without affecting scan quality. The research team received the highest average score and the highest jury rating, thanks in part to an excellent research report.
A student team that developed a method for measuring vaginal lubrication presented this topic in a compelling way and challenged the audience in an entertaining manner. The high level of the research and presentations made it difficult for the jury to reach a verdict.
Symposium concluded with a glimpse into practice
This year, the presentation section concluded with final presentations from Medical Delta, Young Medical Delta, and the winner of the Zuid-Holland regional round for the National Healthcare Innovation Award 2025 ('Nationale Zorginnovatieprijs'). This year, this honor went to Praxa Sense. KTO alumna Fenne van der Zwaard explained how, as Clinical Lead at Praxa Sense, she contributes to the further development of the Delft-based company's smart sensor system for remote health monitoring.
In the closing interview with Medical Delta chairman Frank Willem Jansen, Van der Zwaard discussed how she now puts what she learned in the Clinical Technology program and the Master's program in Technical Medicine into practice every day. She offered the graduates practical tips and advice, for example, on exploring the business world as a potential workplace after graduation.
The symposium concluded, as is tradition, with a celebratory reception and the announcement of the student teams' final grades.
View the summaries of this year's graduation research projects here.
The two winning student teams
