RWTH

RWTH Aachen University was founded in 1870 and is one of nine German Universities of Excellence chosen by the German Research Foundation. RWTH employs more than 8000 persons, including 496 professors and nearly 4500 researchers. The Chair for Medical Information Technology, abbreviated with medIT, is part of the Faculty 6 – Electrical Engineering and Information Technology at RWTH Aachen University. The research interests of the medIT-laboratory involve the application of electrical engineering within medicine and are especially concerned with current roblems/opportunities in the areas of “Personal
Health Care” and “Automation and Control in Medicine”. The topic Personal Health Care encompasses wearable medical devices, particularly diagnostic devices, designed for use at home. Current technological developments are in the fields of “intelligent textiles” and “Body Area Networks” (BAN), certain related basic research areas (e.g. signal processing and motion artefact rejection), and sensor fusion. Due to demographic trends, especially in developed nations, the laboratory also focuses on the needs of the elderly (e.g. enabling greater autonomy at home). Automation and Control in Medicine involves modelling and implementation of feed-back controlled therapy techniques. Research topics include tools and methods for
modelling of disrupted physiological systems, sensor supported artificial respiration, active brain pressure regulation, and dialysis control and optimization. MedIT also starts to look into biomechatronic applications.

Where necessary and sensible, sensing techniques and specialized measurement electronics are developed, for example, in the area of noncontact technologies, like magnetic induction or capacitive biopotential sensors, or in conventional bioimpedance spectroscopy.