Innovation Corner Lower Austria 2024 at TM Vienna: KL Krems represented with "VReeze" project
On 10 June 2024, the 3rd exhibition in the Innovation Corner Lower Austria in the field of medical technology and life sciences was opened at the Vienna Museum of Technology. Karl Landsteiner University is represented with an exciting topic: Using virtual reality, a research team from St. Pölten University Hospital, St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences and KL Krems wants to get to the bottom of a certain phenomenon in the course of Parkinson's disease in order to enable improved diagnostics and therapy.
(v.l.n.r. oben): Michael Moll, Geschäftsführer accent Inkubator; Robert Wagner, Geschäftsführer DPU; Peter Aufreiter, Generaldirektor Technisches Museum Wien; Klaus Kotek, Professor IMC FH Krems
(v.l.n.r. unten): Sabine Siegl-Amerer, Prorektorin Karl Landsteiner Privatuniversität; Viktoria Weber, Vizerektorin Universität für Weiterbildung Krems; Landeshauptfrau Johanna Mikl-Leitner; Doris Agneter, Geschäftsführerin tecnet equity; Barbara Diehl, Agentur SPRIND
On Monday, 10 June 2024, the third edition of the "Innovation Corner Lower Austria" was opened at the Vienna Museum of Technology in the presence of LH Johanna Mikl-Leitner. After Agritec and space technology, this year's show focuses on medical technology and life science from Lower Austria. Ten pioneering projects from Lower Austria will be presented. They range from ground-breaking solutions in ophthalmology and medical technologies for space travel to diagnostic innovations that have the potential to sustainably improve healthcare and the development of tools to better assess pandemic risks.
Karl Landsteiner University is represented this year with an innovative cooperation project: Behind the project entitled "VReeze" is a research team from St. Pölten University Hospital (Clinical Department of Neurology), St. Pölten UAS and KL Krems. The researchers have dedicated themselves to researching Parkinson's disease: the second most common neurodegenerative disease is often accompanied by a condition in which sufferers are temporarily unable to take one step in front of the other. The so-called "freezing of gait" (FOG) restricts mobility and increases the risk of falls and injuries. Although the various triggers for this are known, they cannot be reliably induced in the laboratory.
KL Krems: Using VR to improve the diagnosis and treatment of Parkinson's disease
The project, which is being led by neurologist Stephanie Hirschbichler, senior physician at the Division of Neurology at St. Pölten University Hospital, is using virtual reality (VR) to tackle this challenge: various triggers are to be simulated in a virtual environment and test participants confronted with them. The aim is to develop an open-source toolkit that will ultimately be freely available for science and therapy (evaluation) in order to specifically trigger the phenomenon of FOG and thus be able to better investigate and treat it in the future.
Sabine Siegl-Amerer, Vice-Rector of Karl Landsteiner University, Viktoria Weber, Vice-Rector of the University for Continuing Education Krems, and Robert Wagner, Director of Danube Private University, discussed the importance of innovation, the opportunities in the field of medical technology and life sciences with regard to the "3rd mission" and the possibilities of inspiring young researchers for the topic of innovation and academic spin-offs .
Barbara Diehl from the Federal Agency for Leap Innovation also spoke about "Carrots & Sticks - what does it take for a cultural change in science towards more translation?"
More about the KL Krems project at research.fhstp.ac.at/projects/vreeze
More about Stephanie Hirschbichler, neurologist | Karl Landsteiner Private University (kl.ac.at)
