Exploring digital health

Kaspar Althoefer is leading research on Robotics at Queen Mary University of London. After graduating with a degree in Electronic Engineering from the University of Technology Aachen, Germany, and obtaining a PhD in Robot Motion Planning from Kings College London, he joined the Kings Robotics Group.  In 2016, he became a full Professor of Robotics Engineering at Queen Mary. His current research interests are in the areas of robot autonomy, soft robotics, modelling of tool-environment interaction dynamics, sensing and neuro-fuzzy-based sensor signal classification with applications in robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery, rehabilitation, assistive technologies and human-robot interactions in the manufacturing environment. His personal website.

Gil Awada studied medicine at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, graduating in 2015, and subsequently started his training in Internal Medicine. In August 2017, he enrolled in a PhD project under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Bart Neyns at the Oncology Department of the Universitair Ziekenhuis Brussel. He performs clinical and translational research in melanoma and glioblastoma, investigating new applications of targeted agents, combination therapies and the use of novel clinical biomarkers (such as circulating tumor DNA and imaging).

Johnny Duerinck is neurosurgeon and clinical researcher at the University Hospital Brussels (UZ Brussel). He graduated as a medical doctor from VUB in 2007 and became neurosurgeon at UZ Brussel in 2013. His training in neurosurgery was marked by a special interest in neuro-oncology. He obtained his PhD in medical sciences for his neuro-oncological research in 2017 and continues to conduct clinical research in this field, currently focusing on immune therapy for glioblastoma. He also has a special long-standing interest in and knowledge of new technologies and their application in health care, culminating in a quickly expanding series of multidisciplinary projects in augmented and virtual reality and artificial intelligence.

Koen Kas is a healthcare visionary driven by the aim to make healthcare delightful, personalised, and ultimately preventive. He published his vision in 2 books. ‘Sick no more’ describes how we will transition from reactive sickcare to proactive healthcare. ‘Your guide to Delight’ is a roadmap towards Creating health, dealing with change, introducing our personal Digital Twin. As founding CEO of Healthskouts and Partner at Healthstartup (a social network of novel health companies), he ideates & facilitates innovative disruptions in healthcare, organises hackatons, and creates novel digital health startups. Koen serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of a numerous life sciences companies & investors. He has over 200 international keynotes under his belt, including for many Fortune 500 companies.

Marleen Keyaerts is a nuclear medicine specialist and assistant professor at the University Hospital Brussels (UZ Brussel). She graduated in 2005 as medical doctor from VUB and immediately started her PhD research at the in vivo cellular and molecular imaging (ICMI) lab of the VUB, which she obtained in 2011. She is currently a senior clinical researcher of the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO-Vlaanderen) and combines her clinical duties at the nuclear medicine department with translational and clinical research. She is head of the translational team of ICMI, and is strongly involved in bringing new nanobody-based radiopharmaceuticals from camelids to patients. 

Tony Lahoutte is head of the department of nuclear medicine at UZ Brussel and head of the molecular imaging research unit at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) in Belgium. In 2014 he co-founded the company Camel-IDS NV that is developing a pipeline of radio-immuno therapeutics He obtained his medical degree in 1998 and started his research activities in combination with a residency program in nuclear medicine. His current research is focused on the development and clinical translation of molecular imaging probes and targeted radionuclide therapies for the detection and treatment of cancer.

Guy Nagels is trained as a medical doctor (VUB 1992) and computer science engineer (burgerlijk ingenieur in de toegepaste computerwetenschappen, VUB 2012), and obtained a PhD in biomedical sciences (UA 2007). He holds Belgian board certifications in neurology (1997), rehabilitation medicine (2006), medical data management (2004) and insurance medicine (2008). He is currently a consultant neurologist for MS in the UZ Brussel, head of neurology in the National MS Center Melsbroek, consultant neurophysiologist in the academic psychiatric center Kortenberg, teaches cellular neurophysiology at the VUB and medical aspects of disability at the UMONS, and is academic visitor at the Oxford centre for human brain activity (OHBA). Guy Nagels recently founded the Cognition and Modelling (CIME) research group on the intersection of engineering and medical sciences. CIME has extensive knowledge and experience on the analysis of large datasets of neurophysiological data and works in close collaboration with the Oxford centre for Human Brain Activity, the magnetoencephalography unit at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, the BIODEM lab at the University of Antwerp and industrial partners such as the spinoff neuroimaging company icometrix.

Marc Noppen serves as Chief Executive Officer of the Brussels’ University Hospital UZ Brussel. He is a pulmonologist by training, and holds a PhD in Health Sciences. He has authored or co-authored more than 145 scientific peer reviewed papers and book chapters, and was visiting professor at various universities and university hospitals ( Boston, Montreal, Lille, Perth )He has additional degrees in Pharmaco-economics ( University Antwerp) and management ( INSEAD ). He is associate professor at the Vrije University Brussel, and guest professor at Vlerick Business School Leuven-Gent in Strategic Hospital Management. Marc serves as a Director in a variety of academic and business-related Boards.

STELARC is a performance artist who has visually probed and acoustically amplified his body. He has made three films of the inside of his body. Between 1976-1988 he completed 26 body suspension performances with hooks into the skin. He has used medical instruments, prosthetics, robotics, Virtual Reality systems, the Internet and biotechnology to engineer intimate and involuntary interfaces with the body. He explores Alternate Anatomical Architectures with augmented and extended body constructs. He has performed with a third hand, an extended arm, a virtual arm, a stomach sculpture and exoskeleton, a 6-legged walking robot. His fractal flesh, ping body and parasite performances explored involuntary, remote and internet choreography of the body with electrical stimulation of the muscles. His prosthetic head is an embodied conversational agent that speaks to the person who interrogates it. He is surgically constructing an extra ear on his arm that will be internet enabled, making it a publicly accessible acoustical organ for people in other places.

Fijs van Leeuwen graduated in 2000 from the Leiden University, The Netherlands. After completing a PhD at the University of Twente (2005; Mesa+ institute for nanotechnology) and the Dutch Nuclear Research and Consultancy group, he moved to the Netherlands Cancer Institute - Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Hospital (NKI-AvL). Here he occupied different positions in the departments of Chemical Biology, Radiology and Nuclear Medicine and was promoted to associate staff scientist (2009). In 2011 he moved his research group to the department of Radiology at Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) where he currently is associate professor and heads the Interventional Molecular Imaging Laboratory. Besides this position he is: guest professor in bionanotechnology at Wageningen University, guest scientist at the department of Urology and department of Head and Neck Surgery an Oncology of the NKI-AvL, consultant for Hamamatsu Photonics, and designs wooden surfboards at Ollywood surfboards. 
In 2019, Dr. van Leeuwen joined Orsi Academy to become chief innovation officer (CINO). His main field of interest lies with R&D projects and the clinical translation of new biomedical technologies.  

Thierry Vandendriessche is currently holding several academic appointments. He is tenured Full Professor at the Free University of Brussels (VUB, Belgium), Faculty of Medicine & Pharmacy, where he is Founding Director of the Department of Gene Therapy and Regenerative Medicine. He is also Professor at the University of Leuven (Belgium) at the Faculty of Medicine in the Department of Cardiovascular Sciences. Finally, he was the 2017 Francqui Chair Laureate at the University of Ghent (Belgium). Prof. Dr. VandenDriessche obtained his PhD at the Free University of Brussels in 1992 in the field of gene therapy for cancer and was a visiting fellow at the Weizmann Institute for Science (Israel). He continued his research in gene therapy as a post-doctoral fellow at the National Institutes of Health (USA) where he started his research on gene therapy for hemophilia. His main research focuses on gene therapy and gene editing for hereditary diseases, particularly hemophilia and muscular dystrophies.

Marleen Wynants Since 2003 Marleen Wynants has been directing Crosstalks. She started her career as a music producer, presenter and content researcher for the official Belgian Radio and Television in its pre-commercial stage. While continuing as a freelance journalist on music, art and gender, she ran the post-punk magazine Fabiola together with Jan Vanroelen, both leaving the scene in 1988, the year Hillel Slovak, Chet Baker, Divine, Sylvester and Roy Orbison died. Wynants continued publishing for major media groups in Belgium amongst which HHD Ogilvy, Grey International, Roularta, De Morgen, De Standaardgroep, Financieel Economische Tijd, De Persgroep and Best of Publishing. She was a contributor to Janus, the magazine launched by Jan Fabre.She is the author of several children books, short stories and a large number of articles and columns on art and on science projects and on the people behind them.

• Report - Shake the Disease - April 2019.pdf