CATRENE SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE WORKSHOP 2014 The CATRENE Scientific Committee has released the ‘Smart Systems for Healthcare and Wellness’ report in February 2014 during a workshop in Brussels that gathered more than 75 participants. The report received a high level of support from Industry and is available for download on the CATRENE website. The cost of health care is increasing tremendously in Europe. If no action is taken, healthcare might become unaffordable for all its citizens. The report and workshop focused on the key role that Micro and Nanotechnology can play in finding solutions for this problem. Over the last 60 years, semiconductor technology has progressed tremendously. Following Moore’s law, huge computation power has become available into handheld devices, sensors have shrunk in size, and wireless communication has penetrated into the consumer market, to name only a few developments. The next step is the migration into wearable devices. Already many products are appearing on the market, but with limited functionality and unfit for long term continuous monitoring. More research is needed to obtain that goal. This report will focus on the technology challenges that still lie ahead, and discuss possible solutions. Various technologies are reviewed in the report with the following keywords in mind: prevention (including the promotion of healthy lifestyle through fitness and stress monitoring), diagnostic, therapy and therapy monitoring as well as decentralization from hospital to home maintenance. Three large applications are targeted: Devices for the healthy, devices to cure, and devices to aid the chronically ill (“stay fit”, “get well”, “a better live”). They have to operate unobtrusive, need full autonomy and are either wearable or implantable. Small devices (cm to mm size), with a typical power budget between several µW and a few mW are envisaged. Please see below the presentations made during the workshop:
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Smart Systems for Healthcare and Wellness,
