Access to surgery for everyone

Jenny Dankelman, full professor of biomechanical engineering, has received €120,000 from the Delft University Fund for her research project ‘Let’s make surgery safer and available for everyone’.

Jenny Dankelman would like to use the University Fund’s contribution to develop a cheaper version of the video laryngoscope. A laryngoscope is a medical instrument that can be used to inspect the larynx. A video laryngoscope combines the conventional laryngoscope with a video function and makes inserting a breathing tube into the windpipe much safer, thus reducing the risk of complications. The video laryngoscope used at the moment is still much too expensive for low and middle-income countries. The project entitled ‘Let’s make surgery safer and available for everyone’ is a first step towards a certified, robust and affordable product for everyone.

Dankelman’s dream is to make basic surgery accessible for everyone. Indeed, more people die worldwide from a lack of safe surgery than from infectious diseases. Safe surgery will also give low-income countries an economic boost. A lack of safe surgery can cause long-term disability in people, as a result of which they can no longer work (sufficiently), which has a negative impact on the livelihoods of entire families.