The healthcare sector is under pressure due to an aging population, staff shortages, and growing demand for care. Fortunately, technology offers solutions that both support patients and ease the workload of healthcare professionals.

Smart sensors and wearables are making it increasingly possible to monitor patients. In addition, video analysis, for example, helps detect pain scores, enabling caregivers to better assess residents’ pain and provide appropriate care.

A partnership between Sentigrate, Intelliprove, Health House, and Zorg Leuven, with the support of the province of Flemish Brabant, developed specific technology to address the needs of residents in a residential care center.

This project, called ‘Data4Growth’, made use of existing technology from Intelliprove, a Ghent-based start-up that develops digital applications for health monitoring.

“We are strongly committed to warm, people-oriented care. Technology should never replace that warmth, but it can reinforce it. Thanks to this project, our caregivers have extra support to pick up on the silent signs of pain—signs that residents themselves are sometimes no longer able to express. In this way, digital innovation and genuine attention to people go hand in hand,” says Bieke Verlinden, chair of Zorg Leuven.

The Booghuys and Ter Putkapelle residential care centers of Zorg Leuven therefore participated in the project as ‘living labs’. This means that the new technology was put into practice in these residential care centers. In this way, the technology can be further perfected and the insights gained can lead to improved care for the residents.

“Living labs are essential for bringing innovative technology companies into contact with healthcare institutions in an accessible way,” says Thomas De Moor, Co-Founder of Sentigrate.

What is innovative about this project is that the technology now analyzes micro-expressions in addition to facial blood flow to assess pain. IntelliProve, in collaboration with Sentigrate, developed the algorithms that enable pain score detection based on facial expressions. They also developed a data collection protocol to train this algorithm and make it practical for use.

“Technology in healthcare is crucial to making our care more efficient and targeted, and to freeing up more time for the relationship between caregiver and patient,” says Brecht Dhuyvetters, Co-Founder and CPO of Intelliprove.

The new insights will be widely shared in the healthcare sector through Health House’s extensive network.

“Flemish Brabant is brimming with knowledge and talent in the field of healthcare and technology,” says Ann Schevenels, Deputy for Slimme Regio. “This translates into many success stories, such as that of Data4Growth.”

Every surgical procedure carries risks, but one of the greatest dangers lies in an invisible enemy: bacterial infections caused by inadequately sterilized instruments. Every year, thousands of patients suffer from surgical site infections (SSIs) caused by inadequate reprocessing of surgical instruments.

Factors such as time differences between use and cleaning, inconsistencies in cleaning, suboptimal sterilization parameters such as poor steam quality, or breaking the sterile barrier cause these shortcomings. The emergence of antibiotic-resistant microorganisms further increases the urgency of this problem, as SSIs become more difficult to treat.

Dominique Surinx (CEO & Co-founder Ansana): “Inadequate sterilization not only leads to health problems for patients, but also places enormous financial and operational pressure on hospitals due to the costs of reoperations, prolonged hospital stays, and additional medication use. To improve patient safety, cost efficiency, and sustainability, there is a growing need to optimize reprocessing and sterilization processes.”

Thomas De Moor (CEO Sentigrate): “The social impact of this innovation is felt in various areas. For example, we expect a 10% reduction in SSIs, with direct health benefits for patients and significant cost savings for hospitals.”

“In addition, this goes against the growing trend in the use of single-use surgical instruments. Disposable materials are often still preferred because of their guaranteed sterility. With SteriWatch, we offer a sustainable alternative without compromising on safety and efficiency. This is a crucial step towards safer, more efficient, and more sustainable healthcare.”

“We challenged a lot of companies and start-ups to come up with innovative ideas to protect biodiversity in our Brabantse Wouden,“ says Steven Vanonckelen, coordinator of the Brabantse Wouden National Park. ”A jury selected five projects from seventeen candidates. These projects can help reduce recreational pressure in the park or improve nature management.”

“We already had a lot of information from volunteers, but now we also have an automated system,” he continues. “This information is not only useful for site managers, but also for visitors. A great deal of information that would normally remain hidden is now being made available to the general public.”

The Leuven-based company Sentigrate will also develop a digital solution to monitor recreational pressure. Based on data from apps such as Strava or Wandelknooppunten, they can visualize visitor flows. “We notice that it is often difficult to feed back changes in the forest to policymakers,” says Mathijs Vanhaverbeke of Sentigrate. “If we want fewer people in a certain area, for example because it contains vulnerable nature, a forest ranger can close off that area. Currently, it is difficult to see the effects of this. With the help of apps such as Strava, we can now map the effects of these changes. We are therefore very proud to be part of this. There is also a lot of overlap with the other participants, and it would be great if we could collaborate.”

The other winners are Nunki.ai with their AI-driven park ranger, Heliovision, which will monitor vegetation with wildlife cameras, and LoFeNix, which will deploy wireless sensors in the park.

The Brabantse Wouden National Park, together with Amazon and the regional innovation hub Leuven Mindgate, donated a total of €150,000. The American company also finances the national park through a €1.1 million climate fund. This fund is used for scientific research, reforestation, and the expansion of habitats.

Fatigue not only leads to accidents, but also entails healthcare costs and productivity losses. The consequences of fatigue are most dangerous in occupations involving underground work (e.g., mining) and in the process industry due to the highly demanding nature of the work, with long shifts, confined spaces, lack of fresh air, and heavy physical labor. The risk of health problems (e.g., lung cancer, silicosis, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)) is also higher in these sectors.

Gert Trekels, Sentigrate: “The process industry and mining sector are not only looking for protective equipment that offers the highest level of protection, but also integrates intelligent features to prevent accidents at work. Zero accidents in the workplace is a widespread objective in CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) reports. Unfortunately, this is very difficult to achieve. Through our innovation, we prevent unhealthy situations and accidents, resulting in healthier employees and higher productivity for companies.”

More than half of modern aircraft are made of composite materials. “Composites are strong, light, and highly resistant to corrosion, but damage—such as hairline cracks or delamination—is often invisible to the naked eye,” says Rick van Opdorp of ACRATS Europe. This is a challenge, because inspections are often done manually today. It is error-prone and labor-intensive. “By automating inspection processes, we are not only making the work more efficient, but also more attractive to a new generation of maintenance personnel,” says Rick.

All inspection data is collected centrally and processed in a scalable data pipeline. This is where Sentigrate’s AI algorithm comes into play. Gert Trekels of Sentigrate: “We analyze the signals from the sensors and, using machine learning techniques, we can recognize and quantify changes in structural properties over time. This enables predictive maintenance, whereby not only current damage is identified, but trends can also be tracked that indicate future degradation or risks.”

The prototype developed will be tested on an airplane and helicopter. These are two use cases that are representative of both civil and military applications.

Rick: “The inspection robot increases safety in aviation by detecting damage more quickly and accurately. It also reduces the physical strain on technicians, who now have to operate in less risky conditions.”

“The project also contributes to making transport more sustainable. Composites reduce the weight of vehicles and thus energy consumption. But without robust inspection methods, wider application is stagnating. Our innovation offers opportunities for companies that want to use sustainable materials but are currently held back by uncertainty about safety or maintenance costs.”

“We are also developing the system in a modular way, so that it can also be used in other sectors where composites play a role, such as wind energy or maritime applications.”