Fraunhofer-inHaus-CenterHospital Engineering – Integrated Process Management in a Hospital
The Source Project
The project “Hospital Engineering – Innovation paths for the hospital of the future“, funded by the state government NRW and the European funds of regional development, started on January 1st 2011 and is expected to end on January 31st 2014. The project volume amounts to 4.03 million euros. 25 partners are involved in the project and they come from the research area (4 Fraunhofer Institutes of the Ruhr area, University Duisburg-Essen), as well as from industry and application estate hospital. Furthermore, the project is accompanied by the regional business promotion and network organizations.
The Innovation Lab
The Hospital Engineering Lab is part of the Fraunhofer inHaus-Zentrum in Duisburg and provides a demonstration site of about 350 square meters.
The Fraunhofer inHaus-Zentrum is a unique innovation workshop for novel system solutions in rooms and buildings. The lab functions as demonstrator of innovations around the application estate “hospital”. Therefore, prototypes can be tested and presented in detail and in a realistic environment before using in practice. All innovations give the visitor an understanding with a story in which the patient goes through different stations of a hospital. Examples are reception area, patient room, operating room and rehab area. With the help of this process the advantages of the innovative solutions can be demonstrated and the overall interaction of the different innovations can be clarified.
Goal of the Lab
The Hospital Engineering Lab is a cooperation platform of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft.
The Lab combines potentials of various Fraunhofer Institutes and competences of numerous economy partners. Thus, new solutions for the clinical area can be developed, tested and demonstrated before they finally enter the market. Clinics receive the opportunity to get to know efficiency and supply improvements through the application of technical innovations in hospital without directly using them in their own house in live operation.