By Estelle Becht and Fleur de Boer: During ISP 3 at UPV, Spain we held a workshop – for students – about the GET-lab. Here’s a short summary about the GET-lab:
The world of healthcare is changing and healthcare professionals need to change with it. As the population gets older we are forced to change the way healthcare is implemented and distributed. For the simple reason that there will no longer be as many enough healthcare professionals we actually need. Technology can support us with this and other issues in the field of health and wellbeing. The GET-lab is addressing these concerns through connecting the area of, education, the work field and research. The GET-lab works closely with various academies, programs and research groups. Our mission in the GET-lab is: to ensure that everyone in care and wellbeing can make use of care and social technology in a rapidly developing working field.
The GET-lab is working within different areas of interest:
- Virtual Reality: Technology to enable others to experience a reality beyond the physical world, going beyond into a virtual one.
- Serious Games: Interactive challenges and games, that are more than mere fun, but facilitate improvements in wellbeing and health.
- Domotica: The application of electronics and home networks for to automate processes in and around a home, an office or small business.
- Robotics: Programmable automatic devices to assist in the field of healthcare.
- Quantified Self: Self-measurement and realization through technology.
- Apps and platforms: The development of platforms for specific audiences and supported apps, which has grown rapidly.
It is paramount to remember that technology is just a means to achieve a certain goal. So technology is never a purpose of itself. In that order we always first have to determine the goals and wishes of our stakeholders. After ascertaining these goals and wishes, we can start looking at new fitting possibilities. From there we can experiment and discover new innovations that will allow us to find the solutions for the (new) challenges we are facing. It is essential that through these innovations, we can create a meaningful way forward in developing and implementing solutions in healthcare and wellbeing that guarantee us future proof and of high quality care and services.