ErgoDesign – Improving digital skills for Ergonomics and Bioengineering Innovations for inclusive Health Care

<< Background >>During the Covid pandemic the entire world experienced how important health care is and what happens when other values replace the priority of safeguarding human lives. It became clear that Health Care must be inclusive, thus allowing everyone to be able to access medical cures, both in times of emergency or in the phase of prevention. However, the reality is that few countries provide adequate quality services for people with disabilities.The ErgoDesign project aimed at creating a new interdisciplinary Curriculum to cover different topics (from ergonomics to bioengineering), taking into consideration the requirements of people with special needs, to create a more inclusive care system. The project succeeded to increase the inclusion and diversity, improving the competencies of designer and producer 3D implants for medical purposes. The project contributed to create a more inclusive environment that is responsive to the needs of the wider community, including people with special needs. The analysis on the actual needs of the MedTech and BioTech sector for new employees demonstrated that the most important hard skills refer to design experience and experience with relevant software. << Objectives >>The project partners have brought together their competencies into a new e-learning course, based on a student-centred approach and mixing both theory and practical exercises, to train a new generation of medical and technical staff able to boost the innovation in the medical plants sector. Also, partners felt the need of answering to an unsolved social issue related to the requirements of people with special needs (physical or mental diseases) that are prevented from accessing cures due to their disabilities. This aspect was included as transversal priority in the development of the project training contents and was addressed in a specific module included in the full curriculum. The project successfully transferred such knowledge and skills to both students and to HE lecturers/academics. The general objective of the project was to support the introduction of ergonomic and bioengineering innovations in implantology and prosthetics by adopting new digital applications and training in their use. The ErgoDesign e-learning course aimed also at filling this knowledge gap delivering a student- centred course mixing both theory and practical exercises for practicing digital skills and boosting students’ employability.<< Implementation >>The specific objectives were: to increase the students’ knowledge in the field of ergonomics and bio-engineering and their digital skills for designing and producing related 3D printed medical products (dental and orthopedic implants, prostheses and exoskeletons, etc.) (SO1); to increase the knowledge necessary for the design of healthcare implants for people with special needs (physical and mental) (SO2); to extend the trainers’ knowledge of software/digital tools and their possibilities of use and adaptation for training (SO3); to increase the employability of the students in the medical implants sector (SO4); to create a community of practice around the topics of ergonomics and bioengineering (SO5).The project has created a community of practice around the topics of ergonomics and bioengineering to communicate on an online collaborative platform, which is fed with training contents, as well as information and knowledge from stakeholders. The platform was designed to facilitate interaction and the sharing of resources. In order to achieve the project objectives, the partners followed a development path: they created a selection of software and digital tools aimed at enhancing the knowledge and digital skills of students and EU lecturers; they defined the main elements on which to build the training courses; they created supporting materials (Handbook and e-learning course), translated into seven different languages, to facilitate the replication of ErgoDesign-like courses by other stakeholders. Additionally, 7 webinars were organized to promote the dissemination of the knowledge and methodologies developed.<< Results >>The partners developed 5 project results: PR1 – A Specialized software for design in the Health Care sector dynamic toolkit aimed at presenting several software/digital tools for booting digital competencies of HE lecturers/Academics and students.PR2 – Course Design Principles and ErgoDesign Curriculum aimed at defining theprinciples on which to build the multidisciplinary curriculum (topics, learning outcomes, duration, etc.).PR3 – A Collaborative Platform, aimed at creating a space for discussion and training for stakeholders, hosting the virtual community of practices. https://ergodesigner.tu-varna.bg/PR4 - ErgoDesign Training Materials, aimed at filling the knowledge and skill gaps of the students, by providing them with theoretical formation and practical exercises.The lessons were divided into 11 modules and teaching materials were distributed for each module to fill the gaps in students' knowledge and skills, providing them with theoretical training and practical exercises.The teaching materials are: - Manufacture of Metals for Biomedical Applications- 3D printing of the metals, ceramics and polymers- Anatomy of the implantology, geometry, sizes and general and special examples- Material selection for implant- Human implant compatibility test methods and surgery in implantology- Databases, programming, AI- Telemedicine system, medical informatics- 3D scanning, process and device- Medical Imaging (CT/MRI/USG)- Application of the 3D images for designing as a function of the processing technology (digital tools for designing)- Medical equipment, hospital equipment for people with special needsFor each module there are assessments. The entire module was developed on moodle open source and is therefore easily replicable also on third-party platforms. PR5 - Handbook and e-learning course,aimed at creating resources to ease the replication of the ErgoDesign course by other organizations. The Handbook translated into seven different languages, including Greek, Slovak, Polish, Hungarian, Italian, Bulgarian and English. With reference to PR1 and PR4, the digital pedagogical skills of HE teachers in the areas of 3D design and production of sanitary facilities have increased and have increased HE students’ digital skills.