Health Assisting Engineering

• Introduction to the different types of assistive devices and their classification:
  • Augmentative and alternative aids.
  • Classification according to ISO 9999
• Basics of communication
  • What is communication in general
  • What is communication with and for people with disabilities
  • Political correctness in communication about disabled people
• Disabilities and approaches for their improvement
  • Sensory organs
  • motor functions
  • language and intellect
  • age-related changes
• man-machine interfaces for disabled and elderly people
• Aids and communication for:
  • Visually impaired people
  • Blind people
  • Hard of hearing people
  • Deaf people
  • Movement impaired people
  • People with locked-in syndrome
  • Speech and language impaired people
• Accessible design
  • General principles
  • Requirements of ÖNORM B 1600
  • Application examples
  • Request to check the own environment for accessibility and to present the results to the group
• Technical aids for everyday life based on simple examples

Lecture with ample opportunity for discussion.

Final exam: Final written examination

• Introduction: diversity, disability, accessibility, universal design, assistive technology.
• Relevant laws and guidelines: Human rights, BGstG, UN Convention on Human Rights; ÖNORM B1600, WCAG 2.1 with examples.
• Accessible environmental design: guidelines, examples
• Accessible internet/accessible documents: guidelines, tools, checktools, examples

Lecture, practical exercises

Final exam: Final written examination

• Introduction to the research field of Health Assisting Engineering
• Introduction to the concept of quality of life, as well as to possibilities of supporting quality of life by means of technical aids
• Current developments in the research field and in the environment of the study program Health Assisting Engineering
• Overview of the current state of R&D in the field of health technologies
  • Focus on assistive robotics, categories, areas of application, possible benefits, challenges in R&D
  • Focus on wearable electronics for gait and movement analysis and for controlling physical activity levels; application areas, challenges and testing in practice;
• Current project and product examples

Lecture, group work

Final exam: Final written examination

• Number ranges incl. complex numbers
• Basics of mathematical functions, especially real functions
• Discussion of important elementary real functions, i.e., polynomials, rational functions, angle functions, exponential function, logarithm
• Limit of functions and continuity
• Differential calculus
• Applications of differential calculus - extreme values and Taylor polynomials
• Indefinite and definite integral
• Basics of differential equations

Lecture, joint development of illustrative examples, discussion.

Continuous assessment: Final exam, collaboration, term paper.

• Basics of knowledge management for practice and science
• Getting to know and applying methods and tools of knowledge management (e.g.: knowledge maps, best practice sharing, lessons learned)
• Applied knowledge management in interdisciplinary projects

Lecture, interdisciplinary exchange of students on the topics of the course in the form of group work. Development of a knowledge management strategy for the interdisciplinary student project.

Continuous assessment: Submission and preparation of an interdisciplinary case study in the form of a seminar paper (60% of the final grade)

• Introduction to basic concepts of epidemiology
• Milestones of the historical development
• Prevention and health promotion
• Demography
• Epidemiological measures of disease incidence
• Descriptive epidemiology
• Analytical epidemiology
• Evidence of causal relationships, bias, confounders
• Experimental epidemiology
• Early detection screening

Lecture

Final exam

Classification and description possibilities of

• Functional impairment and functional capacity (e.g. WHO ICF)
• Medical diagnoses (e.g. WHO ICD)
• Medical and therapeutic interventions (e.g. WHO ICHI)
• Assistive devices (ISO 9999)
• Quality of life
• Care needs

Lecture, group work, case studies, discussions, final presentation

Continuous assessment: Immanent performance assessment through group work and presentations

• Assessment procedures and instruments in movement and action science
• Quality criteria of assessments and their calculation methods
• COSMIN checklist for the assessment of studies and reviews on quality criteria
• Possibilities of cross-cultural adaptation
• Discussion: Linking outcome parameters and ICF (function, activity, participation, environment).
• Reflection and exchange of the assessments used in practice and the outcome parameters collected.

Lecture

Exchange in small groups

Presentations in small groups

Continuous assessment: Immanent performance review (description of an assessment by means of a given form and the COSMIN checklist; presentation and exchange in small groups)

• Motor control of human movement
• Processes controlling the preparation and regulation of movement
• Pathoanatomy of the musculoskeletal system
• Degrees of freedom problems and their theoretical solutions
• Principles of dynamic systems involved in movement coordination
• Movement constraints (active and passive)
• Factors influencing the processing of information and preparation for movement
• The role of sensory systems and vision in the perception and execution of a movement
• Rational considerations for scientific investigations, and the link between theory and experimentation

Group work in the sense of problem-oriented learning in interdisciplinary mixed groups.

Continuous assessment: Cooperation and presentation

Excursions to companies/organisations from the fields of therapy, diagnostics and technology

Reflection on product developments and (research) projects in the subject area

Participation in a congress in the field and linking theory and practice

Excursion to companies, research facilities, other institutions or congresses related to the field of Health Assisting Engineering.

Final exam: Seminar paper

• Innovations
  • Definition, types, meaning, sources, obstacles
  • The innovation management process (phases and tools)
• Creativity in idea generation and problem solving
  • Creative techniques: Methods and tools
  • Importance of the team in creative processes
  • Conjoint analysis
  • design thinking
  • Quality Function Deployment

Lecture with activating methods and group exercises.

Continuous assessment: 70 % Group work

30 % Collaboration/ Individual work

Overview

• Usability / user experience, user-centred design / co-design, differentiation and delimitation of concepts and terms
• Design of user interfaces and interactions with health technologies, interface design and principles of interaction design
• User interface patterns and standards
• Presentation and visualization of information
• Presentation and application of tools for designing mock-ups (wireframes, software mock-ups)

Planned program

Topic introduction and conceptual basics

• Why Humen Centred Design (HCD)
• Localization of the field
• Raising awareness
• Literature, Professional Organizations
• Conceptual delimitations, definitions, criteria, standards

Basics of human-centered design and development

• Phases of the HCD process
• Focus: "Design - Development of Design Solutions".
• Methods, role of UX in projects

Design basics

• Psychology of perception
• Paradigms, principles, patterns, standards

Prototyping

• Different approaches, types
• Tools

• Interactive lecture with exercises on design tasks in individual and group settings
• PowerPoint slides on content topics
• Videos
• Examples from practice
• Small (interactive) exercises durign the lecture
• Quiz games

Continuous assessment: Evaluation of individual and group submissions and final presentation

• Practical realisation of a sub-area of an electronic device and/or overall device concept.
• Getting to know the procedure for creating/fixing and maintaining functional and device requirements,
• Consideration of the requirements regarding interference immunity, magnetic compatibility and electrostatic charging (EMC, ESD),
• Consideration of the special requirements for devices in the medical sector
• In small groups, device concepts are developed and also partially realized - thus the students are taught the structured procedure by means of a practical exercise.

Lecture and practical group work

Continuous assessment: 50% specifications

30% presentations

20% Completeness of 2-week reports

Digital and analog inputs and outputs, ADC

Communication via bus systems (UART, SPI, I2C)

Interrupts and timers on the microcontroller

Memory systems on the microcontroller

Sensors and actuators for microcontrollers

Programming with Arduino and Processing

Creating software functions to read sensors and control actuators,

Using communication interfaces to exchange data with applications and apps.

Lecture with accompanying exercises in distance learning and a project assignment

Continuous assessment: Individual exercises,

group project,

Written final exam

• Introduction to the basic concepts and relevant methods for the development of customer requirements for a new product (i.e. a specification sheet as a problem description, including the essential performance data, the legal, market-determined and company-internal framework conditions as well as the price points to be aimed for).
• Its implementation in technical product specifications and in a requirement specification, which serves as a concrete guideline for the realization of the project even in a changing environment, will be elaborated.

Practical examples are used to develop the implementation of the specified requirements in system designs.

Lecture

Final exam: Seminar paper

• Philosophy of science, research paradigms with regard to qualitative and quantitative research
• Qualitative and quantitative epistemology
• Developing a research question
• Differences and similarities of different qualitative methods
• Introduction to epistemology
• Qualitative data collection (interviews, focus groups, participant observation, etc.)
• Use of qualitative methods for eliciting needs, contexts of use and other framework conditions as well as for evaluation in the context of product development processes
• Qualitative data analysis methods
• Practical project with users for needs assessment

Interactive lecture with exercises, seminar work as group project

Continuous assessment: Handing in the individual exercises

Participation in the interactive elements

Evaluation of the seminar paper

• Descriptive statistics (concept of frequency, measures of location, measures of dispersion, graphical representation methods of discrete and continuous characteristics, properties of special distributions, in particular the normal distribution, (rank) correlation).
• Inductive statistics (parametric and non-parametric methods for independent and dependent samples, more complex variance-analytical methods such as two-factor analysis of variance or repeated measures on one factor (mixed anova))
• Multivariate methods (multiple regression analysis, logistic regression, reliability analysis)
• Use and practice of statistical and analysis software (SPSS)

Lecture, practical performance of analyses directly on the computer (with the help of SPSS), joint interpretation of the results. Special emphasis is placed on interactivity in class

Continuous assessment: Work assignments (independent analyses with SPSS including interpretation of the results)

• Introduction to Clinical Research
• Clinical Research Ethics
• Clinical Study Protocol (Study Objectives, Study Hypothesis, Structure/Content, Templates, Amendments, IRB/IEC Submission and Approval)
• Basics of Clinical Trial Design (Population, Intervention, Control, Outcome (PICO))
• Implementing PICO into the Study Protocol (Inc./Exc. Crit, Intervention, Types of Control Groups, Outcome parameters (prim./sec., hard/soft, clinical/surrogate, Time-to-Event Data) )
• Clinical Trial Statistics (Measures of Central Tendency/Spread, Risk/Risk Factor, RR, OR, Hazard Ratio, Hypothesis Testing, Confidence Interval + Interpretation, Sample Size Calculation)
• Clinical Study Designs I (Observational/interventional, prospective/retrospective, Legal Classification: drugs/devices, Hierarchy of Clinical Evidence, Problems: Bias, Confounding)
• Clinical Study Designs II (Observational Studies: Cross-Sectional, Case-Control, Cohort Study )
• Clinical Study Designs III (RCTS, Randomization, Blinding, RCT-Modifications (cross-over, add-on, group sequential design) )
• Missing Data & Drop-Outs (Problems, Causes of Missing Data, Dealing with Missing Data (LOCF, BOCF) )
• Critical Appraisal of Clinical Research Papers (Quality Assessment, STROBE/CONSORT Statement)
• Meta-Analysis (Efficacy/Effectiveness, weighted summary, Forest-, Funnel-, L'Abbe-plot, Mantel-Hanszel Procedure, PRISMA Statement)

Lecture with exercises and group discussions

Final exam: Seminar paper

• Ethical aspects of technical action
• Ethical dilemmas
• Ethical questions regarding research on humans
• Legal framework, e.g. ethics committee
• International framework conditions, e.g. with regard to the publication of study results
• Model for the ethical evaluation of socio-technical arrangements (MEESTAR) Research ethics in connection with technical arrangements

Scenario Method

Lecture

Discussions

Group work

Continuous assessment: Collaboration, presentations

• Formulation of a research question (operationalisation, formulation of objectives)
• Selection of a master thesis topic
• Analysis of research methodological approaches (instruments)
• Guidelines of the course of studies on master thesis topics and the procedure of submission, processing, supervision and assessment
• Preparation of an exposé
• Discussion of the topics proposed by the students for their Master's theses

Lecture, group discussions and individual consultation

Final exam: Submission of an exposé of the planned master thesis (seminar paper).

Attention - there is no final exam, but the course is completed with the submission of the exposé.

Reflection on basic communication theories

(Schulz von Thun, Hall, Watzlawick, Rogers, Berne)

Cooperative communication

Conversation techniques and situations:

Informational or clarifying conversation

Helping conversation

Conflict talk

Critical discussion

Feedback talks

Presentation and lecture

Lecture, group work, role play with video analysis, presentation

Continuous assessment: Attendance, participation, work assignments and feedback of the presentations

Innovation management under consideration of technology management

Entrepreneurship/Intrapreneurship

Basics of product management, business model, product life cycle

Basics of Marketing

Health Economics

Basics of Business Plan

Lecture

Discussion

Problem-based learning

Group work

Peer feedback

Final exam: Immanent performance assessment consisting of:

> Presentation of a business plan

> Development and presentation of a pitch deck (module exam)

Realization of a health technology. In the form of group work, the students realise the product defined and analysed in a previousLVA (Conception of medical-technical devices, 2nd semester) as a prototype. The basic principles of project and product management are applied. The realization takes place mainly in the form of independent work via distance learning.

Lecture, project work in groups

Final exam: the realized product as well as the accompanying documentation will be used for assessment in equal parts (module examination)

Funding environments and applications

• National and EU-wide funding environments (tenders and public contracts)
• Procedure for the evaluation of tenders and public contracts
• Basics of the award procedure
• Legal framework
• Awarding and monitoring of funding
• Building blocks and success factors for writing applications
• Practical exercises for writing applications

Project management as a basis for planning and implementing the project applied for

• Project management basics: project concept / project types / PM tasks / project phases
• Project start phase: project environment analysis / project definition / project organisation
• Project planning: planning variables / work breakdown structure / scheduling / resource planning
• Project execution phase: project planning / change management and project controlling
• Project completion phase
• Outlook Advanced topics: Planning methods and planning tools

Teamwork, impulse lectures, practical exercises, reflection and feedback rounds

PM part: Lecture / Powerpoint presentation / Flipchart / PM Tools

Final exam: 50% Funding request

Graded are: Brief content, relevance of the project in relation to the focus of the call for proposals, presentation of the state of the art and problem definition as well as project objectives and innovative content

50% Project Manual

For the PM part, a project manual (PHB) including the necessary plans for the project applied for funding should be prepared. The assessment key will be announced in the lecture.

(Module exam)

Clarification of terms, development of a clinical question, scientific literature search in databases, critical reading and evaluation of scientific articles, basics of quantitative and qualitative research and clinical studies.

Lecture, group work, individual work, practical exercises

Final exam: Seminar paper

• Civil law regarding liability, product liability law
• Strategies for the protection of intellectual property
• ISO standards
• Labour law
• Medical Devices Act (MPG)
• Medical law, professional laws for health care professions

Lecture and interactive discussion

Final exam

- Central concepts of consulting

- Counselling functions and roles

- Theories and models of counselling

- Selected counselling methods

- Counselling level I: Individual (communication, conflict, coaching)

- Consulting level II: Group (development phases, team processes, roles and positions, moderation)

- Consulting level III: Organization (organizational development and change management, organizational structures, organizational culture, organizational learning)

- Self-reflection as a basis for consulting activities (personality, career)

- Lecture

- Group work

- case studies

- Simulation

Continuous assessment: written examination (60%)

presentations (40%)

• Current state of knowledge & research on e-counseling.
• Definition and scientific basis
• Electronic media (software variants) to support counselling communication, the counselling process, interventions, the transfer of information and knowledge, and the evaluation of counselling services.
• Methods of eCounseling and their applications
• Practical part - personal experience

Lecture, group discussion, teamwork, case studies

Continuous assessment: Immanent performance assessment consisting of the following four sub-performances:

1st test on block 1 "Benefits and challenges in health data exchange".

2nd test on block 2 "Use of e-counseling in different areas and regions".

3. test on block 3 "Technical and legal challenges of e-counseling and teletherapy".

4. submission of a group paper "Project documents for the planned financing of an e-counseling or teletherapy solution".

Independent preparation for the Master's examination, consisting of the examination parts:

• Presentation of the Master's thesis
• Justification of the thesis
• Examination discussion on cross connections of the topic of the Master's thesis to the relevant subjects of the curriculum

Examination discussion about other study-relevant contents

Independent work on the topic with individual feedback within the framework of the Master's thesis supervision.

Final exam: Commissioned Master's examination

Writing the Master's thesis

Independent work on the topic with individual feedback within the framework of the Master's thesis supervision.

Final exam: Master exam

• Presentation of individual sections or the status of the Master's thesis
• Data collection and analysis
• Advice on further work
• Critical discussion and reflection of one's own work and that of others as well as defence of one's own research approach
• Scientific theoretical approaches

Individual feedback, presentations, working on case studies, discussions in small groups and in plenary, reflection on own work

Continuous assessment: Active participation in tasks

• History of Technology Assessment
• Goals and role of technology assessment
• Terminology of technology assessment
• Methods of technology assessment
• Presentation of case studies in the context of the use of health technologies
• Specific challenges and potentials of health technologies from the perspective of technology assessment

Lecture, group work, presentation, practical exercises (individual, small group, plenary).

Final exam: Seminar paper