Meet Roel, our new graduation student focussing on ICU’s acoustics!
Currently, CAL has a couple of graduation students working on improving particular aspects in the Intensive Care Unit. What they all strive for is to improve the workflow and/or wellbeing of all people present in the ICU (i.e. clinicians, patient and visitors). We are on our way to transform critical alarms into beautiful ones, but we can use all help. Therefore, we are delighted that a new graduation student strengthens our team! Meet Roel!
Hello all! I am Roel and I am the new member of the Critical Alarms Lab. I will start graduating on a new concept to be used within the Intensive Care of the Erasmus MC. It might come as no surprise that, as being part of the Critical Alarms Lab, I will do further research in how alarms affect patients’ health when hospitalized. In my case, the biggest focus will be on balancing between the effectivity of the recovery of the patient in an Intensive Care, and the efficiency of the workflow of nurses and doctors.
What are you going to design?
I will design a product that will most probably visualise the current state of patients and the sounds by which they are surrounded, making it possible for nurses and doctors to see how the patients are doing in the blink of an eye. By making this data visible to these target groups, it might help with making the ICU more patient-friendly by improving the overall acoustics.
What's in it for you?
This project lies close to my heart as it gives me the opportunity to think about how I can make the lives of other people better. Knowing that the environment is so incredibly dense, I will try to lighten up the Intensive Care by improving the acoustics.
When you are so unlucky to have a relative hospitalised within an Intensive Care Unit, the last thing you want to focus on is all different alarms. You have come to the ICU to be with the patient, sit by their bedside, comforting them saying that everything will be fine again. That’s what makes this project special to me. Even though my product will not directly heal a patient, it will improve the overall experience within the hospital. This is the perfect opportunity for me to do a project with a healthcare oriented scope, and at the same time I can help the Critical Alarms Lab and the Erasmus MC by creating insights on how to visualise information about acoustics in the environment.