About our collaboration
The collaboration brings together faculty, staff, and students Saxion University of Applied Sciences (The Netherlands), the University of Waterloo (Canada) and the University of Alberta (Canada) and stems from shared interests and expertise in technology for health and well-being. Together, we endeavour to scale up research and enhance learning by exchanging knowledge, expertise, and experiences of faculty, staff, and students.
Initiatives
- Innovative technologies for health equity in marginalized groups and underserved communities;
- Future proof education for professionals in the use of technology in health care and social work;
- Point-of-care technologies used by health care and social work professionals in daily practice.
Goals
- Personal and professional development of undergraduate, masters, and PhD students, post-doctoral fellows, and research staff, and faculty research;
- Scaling up research programs in areas of technologies that support health among persons from marginalized populations;
- Future proofing the next generations of scholars and healthcare and social work service providers.
Created by Saxion's Fab Lab
Core members
|
Initiative: Health equity |
Initiative: Future proof education | Initiative: Point-of-care technologies |
|---|---|---|
| Lili Liu (UWaterloo) | Marjolein den Ouden (Saxion University) | Sushanta Mitra (UWaterloo) |
| Christine Daum (UWaterloo) | Adriana Rios Rincon (UAlberta) | Aurel Ymeti (Saxion University) |
| Trish van Katwyk (UWaterloo) | Sjors Groeneveld (Saxion University) | Martin Bennick (Saxion University) |
| Plinio Morita (UWaterloo) | Plinio Morita (UWaterloo) | Mahla Poudineh (UWaterloo) |
| Antonio Miguel Cruz (UAlberta) | Angelique Tinga (Saxion University) | |
| Adriana Rios Rincon (UAlberta) | ||
| Marloes Bults (Saxion University) | ||
| Monique Engelbertink (Saxion University) | ||
| Jelte van Waterschoot (Saxion University) | ||
| Peter Gramberg (Saxion University) | ||
| Noortje Rijken (Saxion University) |
Faculty, staff and student exchanges
May 2025: Masters in Health Care & Social Work students from Saxion University of Applied Sciences, Steffan Kalvenhaar and Felisia Kamphuis, participated in an exchange to the University of Waterloo. Students learned about social work practice in Canada. LinkedIn post about Saxion student exchange to UWaterloo.
March 2025: Trish Van Katwyk, Director and Professor at the School of Social Work, Renison University College, UWaterloo, visited Saxion University of Applied Sciences. LinkedIn post about Van Katwyk's visit.
February – April 2025: UWaterloo (Renison University College) Masters of Social Work students Ariel Seale and Rosalie Banal participated in student exchanges at Saxion University of Applied Sciences as a part of their Master of Social Work fieldwork placements. Students learned about social work practices in The Netherlands, explored innovative approaches to healthcare and community-based supports, and learned about social technology integration into practice. LinkedIn post about UWaterloo student exchange to Saxion.
February – March 2025: UWaterloo PhD candidate Gaya Bin Noon participated in an exchange at Saxion Univerisity of Applied Sciences to collect data in The Netherlands, supplementing data collection in Canada. LinkedIn post about Bin Noon’s visit.
August 2024: Four members from the Universities of Waterloo and Alberta visited Saxion University of Applied Sciences. The program included visits to the MST Hospital Enschede, Roessingh Research & Development Centre, social work organizations (e.g., Wijkracht, IMEAN), University of Twente, and meetings with internal and external experts and research groups. LinkedIn post about August visit.
June 2024: Morita (UWaterloo) visited Saxion University of Applied Sciences to discuss new project ideas, student exchange, and establish new collaborations. LinkedIn post about Morita's visit.
April 2024: Saxion University of Applied Sciences Instructor and PhD student Groeneveld completed data collection at UAlberta and UWaterloo. Groeneveld has expanded his study to a third site at the University of Newcastle, Australia through a collaboration that was established during his work visit to UAlberta.
March 2024: Six Saxion University of Applied Sciences CCTS members and two from UWaterloo visited members at UAlberta. Web story about March 2024 visit to UAlberta.
March 2024: Mitra (UWaterloo) visited Applied Nanotechnology Research Group & Lab (Saxion University of Applied Sciences). During the visit, Mitra gave a keynote presentation at POCT24 Congress in Enschede (The Netherlands) entitled Towards sustainable development of biosensors.
October and November 2023: UWaterloo doctoral student Bin Noon visited Saxion University of Applied Sciences. Bin Noon worked with Saxion University of Applied Sciences Instructor and PhD student Groeneveld and other Saxion researchers to write a position paper regarding the cooperation between nurses and AI-driven lifestyle monitoring.
October 2023: Saxion University of Applied Sciences instructor and PhD student Groeneveld participated in delivered a workshop and other dissemination and networking activities with UWaterloo and UAlberta collaborators associated with the 2023 AGE-WELL and Canadian Association on Gerontology conferences.
June 2023: Poudineh (UWaterloo) visited Applied Nanotechnology Research Group/Lab at Saxion University of Applied Sciences. The visit initiated a joint research project entitled Rapid detection of IL-6 biomarker for reliable diagnosis of sepsis/blood poisoning. In this project, a microfluidic system developed at Waterloo Institute of Nanotechnology (WIN, UWaterloo) is being integrated with photonic biosensors developed at Applied Nanotechnology research group (ANT, Saxion University of Applied Sciences).
March 2023: Seven Saxion University of Applied Sciences CCTS members and two members from UAlberta visited UWaterloo. The visit culminated in a collaborative research agreement. Web story about inaugural meeting in Waterloo.
Selected collaborative publications
Bults, M., van Leersum, C.M., Olthuis, T.J.J., Siebrand, E., Malik, Z., Liu, L., Miguel-Cruz, A., Jukema, J.S., den Ouden, M.E.M. (2024). Acceptance of a digital assistant (Anne4Care) for older adult immigrants living with dementia: Qualitative descriptive study. JMIR Aging; 7:e50219. DOI: 10.2196/50219
den Ouden, M.E.M., Groeneveld, S., Engelbertink, M.M.J., Talsma, A., Rincón, A.R., & Liu, L. (2025). Future-proof healthcare professionals: Innovative approaches from Canada, TheNetherlands, and the United States of America. The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 30(1). DOI: 10.3912/OJIN.Vol30No01Man06
Jukema, J.S., Ymeti, A., Oldenhuis, H., van Os-Medendorp, H. (2024). Point-of-care testen in zorg voor ouderen. Nurse Academy O&T, 3.
Groeneveld, S., Bin Noon, G., den Ouden, M.E.M., van Os-Medendorp, H., van Gemert-Pijnen, J.E.W.C., Verdaasdonk, R.M., Morita, P.P. (2024). The cooperation between nurses and a new digital colleague “AI-driven lifestyle monitoring” in long-term care for older adults: Viewpoint. JMIR Nursing. 23, 7:e56474. doi: 10.2196/56474.
Van Waterschoot, J. B. (2024). Innovative technologies for health equity in marginalized groups and underserved communities. Gerontechnology, 23(s), 1-1. https://doi.org/10.4017/gt.2024.23.s.894.1.sp
Selected collaborative presentations
Bults, M., van Katwyk, T., Banal, R., Seale, A. (2025). Cross-cultural Responsive and Accessible Technologies for Societal Impact (CCTS): Critical health promotion and the use of technology. CASWE-ACFTS The Canadian Association for Social Work Education Virtual Summit, May 21-23, 2025. (Symposium presentation).
CCTS members convened a workshop entitled Innovative technologies for health equity in marginalized groups and underserved communities at the World Conference of the International Society of Gerontechnology (ISG) in Frankfurt, Germany on September 2, 2024. Members presented four projects about assistive technologies for older adults who have a lower social-economic status, chronic conditions and low digital literacy based on the WHO’s GATE 5P-model. Citations are below. LinkedIn post describing the workshop.
- van Waterschoot, J.B., Gramberg, P.J. (2024). Virtual Living Coach assistant for older adults living longer independently.
- Bults, M., Zuidhof, N., van den Berg, G.H., van der Linden, D., Stokkers-Scholten, J., Liu, L., den Ouden, M.E.M. (2024). Sustainable implementation of technology in healthcare using the Non-Adoption, Abandonment, Scale-up, Spread and Sustainability instrument.
- Morita, P.P., Istrate, D., Zalc, V., Rumeau, P., Vigouroux, N., Campo, E. (2024). Sustainable AAL Technology for supporting seniors in independent living shared homes.
- Rincón, A.R., Cruz, A.M., Daum, C., Liu, L. (2024). Conducting AgeTech research with marginalized and underserved communities: Challenging assumptions.
Groeneveld, S., Mann, J., Khan, S., & Neubauer, N. (2023). Unseen and unheard: Access, use, and adoption of AgeTech to support autonomy and independence among older adults. AGE-WELL Annual Conference, Toronto, Ontario, October 25, 2023.
Bults, M., van Leersum, C.M., Olthuis, T.J.J., Siebrand, E., Malik, Z., Liu, L., Miguel-Cruz, A., Jukema, J.S., & den Ouden, M.E.M. (2023). Anne4Care for immigrant older adults coping with dementia: A study on acceptance using a qualitative descriptive research design. 2023 Annual Meeting of the Socio-gerontechnology Network, Utrecht, The Netherlands, September 28, 2023.
Liu, L., Bults, M., & Groeneveld, S. (2023). Overlooked and unheard: Access, use, and adoption of AgeTech to support autonomy and independence in marginalized communities in Canada and The Netherlands. British Society on Gerontology Conference, East Anglia, United Kingdom, July 5, 2023.
Annual reports
Please contact Christine (cdaum@uwaterloo.ca) to request our annual reports:
- March 2023 - March 2024
- March 2024 - March 2025
Lili Liu
Dean, Faculty of Health; Professor, School of Public Health Sciences
University of Waterloo
Marjolein den Ouden
Antonio Miguel Cruz
Associate Professor, Department of Occupational Therapy, Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine
University of Alberta
Funding acknowledgement
Support for exchanges was received through the Erasmus+ KA171 International Credit Mobility program. Support for presentations was received through various funders including AGE-WELL NCE and the NWO (the Dutch Research Council).