On December 16th, we received the fantastic news that NWO decided to grant the FIT-UP (Functional, Individual, Tailor-made Urogynecological Pessary) application. M3i staff member Anique Grob is main applicant, collaborating with prof Gijs Krijnen from RaM, dr. Frank Simonis from MD&I and prof Chris de Korte from PoF and RadboudUMC.
Globally, up to half of all women who have had children have some degree of clinical pelvic organ prolapse (POP) and 10–20% are symptomatic causing reduced participation in society and a lower quality of life. Pessary treatment is the first line of care but has a limited success rate of 60%. When unsuccessful, surgery is the only treatment option left. In the Netherlands 12.500 uterus preserving POP interventions per year are performed at a total cost of €81.250.000, partially because of unsuccessful pessary treatment. This project aims to improve the pessary success rate by developing a finite element based method, based on knowledge from multi-modality imaging and sensor-based technology, that accurately defines which shape and materials of pessary will be most beneficial to the prolapse of an individual patient and therefore can be used in clinical decision making. Our team will collaborate with national and international experts in the field to guarantee state-of-the-art solutions. Contribution of both medical imaging (Philips and Siemens) and sensing (TMSi) and 3D printing companies (Oceanz, Ultimaker, TNO Brightlands) is established and will considerably improve the success of valorization. Patient participation and clinical perspectives are covered by means of a close collaboration with BB4all, NVOG and ZGT hospital.
The total budget of 950.000 euros includes the position of 2 PhD-students and one postdoc, with additional budget for the purchase of an ultrasound machine and visits to our international collaborators in Houston and Lille.
