Electromagnetic interference (EMI), familiar to most people as the buzzing sound from a loudspeaker when a mobile-phone call is received, is becoming much more than just an annoyance. This is especially true for the medical-technology industry, one of Europe’s most diverse and innovative high-tech sectors. EMI can obstruct communications, and with equipment such as life-support systems, people’s lives are put at risk. This dangerous situation is made worse by the fact that companies produce new medical devices that are more effective, provide better care and are more widely available to patients, which means the problems associated with EMI are multiplying.
Designing a device to contain as well as attenuate the impact of EMI requires a holistic system approach. It is about first understanding how the EM noise propagates, as it follows the lowest energy path through a system, regardless of how the system is designed. The change is more profound than simply re-enforcing further existing EMI protections. It is about understanding new environments of use, adapting and inventing solutions of protection with respect to new EMI issues, while maintaining the key design characteristics of the medical device. It is also about ensuring long-term resilience and reliability to constantly changing, increasingly complex EMI scenarios.
The European Green Deal has highlighted how the future of public health and the environment will be based on the Safe and Sustainable-by Design framework (SSbD). This is an approach to integrate the safety, circularity, energy efficiency and functionality of materials, products, and processes throughout their lifecycle.
The future of EMI management and solutions is at a crossroads, we have created the PATTERN network because we believe that artificial intelligence (AI) will have a positive impact on the holistic design for EMI solutions. AI can discover previously unknown patterns in the interactions that take place between us, our devices, and our increasingly complex environment, and it can support us redefining safe-and-sustainable-by-design solutions to the dangers posed by EMI in various scenario. PATTERN has expertise from four key areas, i.e., electromagnetic compatibility (EMC), medical engineering, risk management, and sustainability management
along with specific expertise from MedTech sectors and a complete value chain. PATTERN will be the first European initiative where the people with all this expertise work together to make AI a step changer in innovative and sustainable solutions to manage EMI and set new design guidelines for electromagnetic reliability and the safety of the European products of tomorrow.
The key objectives of PATTERN are:
Scientific
To develop SSbD solutions when embedding existing AI technology into a new design philosophy for EMI in medical electronic equipment.
Training
To train a group of young European engineers so they can take up key positions in the field of electronics for medical electronic equipment.
Industry-academia network
To set up international links, involving people and technology, between leading European universities and industries in MedTech.
Society
To enable safe, reliable, and sustainable medical products for all
The joint academic/industrial cosupervision at leading institutes or companies in combination with the wide variety of training through research, courses (tailored for every DC in his/her PCDP) and immersive training guarantees that every DC will be part of a high-quality, diverse, and inclusive research environment that supports individual development for both scientific topics and transferable skills. In addition, PATTERN adheres to the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training. The Beneficiaries and secondment hosts, the research topics, the secondments, the supervision teams, the content of the PATTERN Network-Wide Events and the management structure have all been carefully defined to ensure that every DC can achieve research and training excellence in attractive institutional environments, in interdisciplinary research teams, with exposure to industry, international networking, transferable-skills training, and with the quality of the whole programme ensured by experienced professionals who will coordinate the network.