The task group „Monitoring and Intervention“ within the department of cardiovascular engineering focuses on two main subjects: telemetric monitoring of patients and minimally invasive intervention. In both topics, medically engineered solutions are being investigated, developed and tested in vitro as well as in vivo.

Monitoring vital parameters is a key point for patient with cardiac diseases.

For example, the patient vitals such as blood pressure, ECG, body temperature, cardiac output and others are being recorded and analyzed to afford medical staff the opportunity of intervention. The goal of new kinds of monitoring systems is to improve the quality of living of the patients as well as the efficiency of the therapy management by monitoring patients’ vital parameters online while they are at home. This is called “Home Monitoring”. The data will be read telemetrically and transmitted to the doctor via radio frequency.

In cooperation with our project partners the task group “Monitoring and Intervention” develops and tests measuring systems for blood pressure which will be implanted for a longer period of time. Depending on the patients symptoms the developed sensors are positioned in different parts of the body. For example, if the patient sufferst from hypertension the sensor is implanted in the femoral artery (Project: HyperPLUS). In case of cardiac insufficiency, the sensor is positioned in the pulmonary artery to determine the cardiac output (Project: COMPASSplus).

Minimally invasive intervention is a field of modern medical engineering that becomes more important every day. One of the foundations of our task group is to get away from traumatizing operations and develop compatible methods of treatment according to the symptoms of the patient. The main goals are to support development of strategies for implantation, develop techniques for fixation, and design suitable surgical instruments.

Furthermore, in cooperation with the Frauenhofer Institute of Production Techniques (IPT), our task group works on a minimally invasive applicator for stitches. Mainly the group focuses on the isolation and examination of different stitch parameters and how they influence the final result (Project: The Safe Suture).