Resilience and Innovation: Learning from Brilliant Failures

In the rapidly changing landscape of medical technology, the path to groundbreaking innovation is often paved with setbacks and unforeseen challenges. This session at the Techmed Event delves into the invaluable lessons that can be gleaned from 'brilliant failures'—those ventures and experiments that, despite not achieving their intended outcomes, offer critical insights and drive future success.

Join us as leading experts and industry pioneers share their candid experiences of failure, revealing how resilience and adaptive thinking transformed obstacles into opportunities. Through these narratives, attendees will learn how to navigate the complexities of medical technology development, mitigate risks, and foster a culture that embraces failure as a stepping stone to innovation.

This session aims to empower participants with strategies to enhance their own resilience, inspire innovative thinking, and ultimately accelerate progress in the medical technology sector.

The programme

The Speakers

Anique Bellos-Grob | ZGT - University of Twente

Anique Bellos-Grob is an assistant professor in the group of Multi-Modality Medical Imaging, with a focus on imaging in urogynaecology. She uses 3D ultrasound and upright MRI to study pelvic organ prolapse in women and works towards new insights and development to optimize patient care. Anique received her master degrees in Health Sciences (2011) and in Technical Medicine (2013) from the University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands. She received her PhD at the department of gynecology at the University Medical Center Utrecht (2016) under the supervision of prof. dr. van der Vaart, prof. dr. ir. Slump and dr. Withagen. She received a NWO-OTP grant in 2021 to develop tailormade pessaries and a ZGT scientific voucher in 2021 to study the development of recurrences after prolapse surgery.

Bob Geelkerken | MST & University of Twente

Bob Geelkerken is a consultant vascular surgeon at Medisch Spectrum Twente, specializing in complex aortic and peripheral vascular disorders, and a professor at the M3i group, TechMed Centre, Twente University. He earned his MD from Erasmus University Rotterdam in 1985 and his PhD from Leiden University in 1996. With extensive experience in competency-based training for surgeons, he developed the CASH-3V training program. Bob also initiated the Dutch Expert Center for Mesenteric Ischemia at MST, serving patients since 1996. His research focuses on advancing technologies for diagnosing and treating vascular disorders, including leading the CARoSO study on Median Arcuate Ligament Syndrome. In his spare time, he enjoys maintaining his family's dressage stable in the Twente countryside.