First place for UAS Technikum Wien students at EIT Health Innovation Days 2021

The EIT Health Innovation Days took place from November 8th to 15th in numerous European countries. In Austria, the event, which was held virtually this time, was organized by the Carinthian medical technology company Wild. For one week, students developed ideas for the innovative use of VR and AR in the healthcare sector with the support of mentors and partners from the industry. A team from the Master’s program in Health and Rehabilitation Technology was also involved. The UAS Technikum Wien students Valerie Högerle, Stefan Kastner, Andreas Schütz and Dominik Ratka were rewarded for their concept with first place by the jury at the end of the week.

Under the title “Reha4Fun”, the group developed a way to perform physiotherapeutic exercises from home with a playful approach. The patient receives a visualization of the exercise elements via AR glasses, and the movements are recorded via a commercially available Microsoft Kinect system. The therapist can view the recording and provide assistance without having to be directly present. The system is intended to increase the patient’s motivation through playful applications and thus achieve a higher rehabilitation success. At the same time, rehabilitation centers and physiotherapists could be relieved in this way and costs could be saved, according to the students’ idea.

In addition to the content-related concept, the group also had to develop a business model for their own start-up and present it to a jury in a pitch. For their first place, the students received prize money of 500 euros and, together with the other winning teams from Europe, took part in the “Winner’s Event”, which was also held virtually. The overall victory was achieved by a Portuguese student team from the Universidade de Coimbra with the project “My Care”.