This chapter describes the context and rationale for the Technical Medicine educational program. An overview of the historical and political-administrative context behind establishingthe Technical Medicine (TM) program. The increasing integration of technology in healthcare, coupled with the decreasing subject matter of mathematics, physics, and chemistry being taught in Dutch secondary education, led the University of Twente to recognize the need for a specialized program. Additionally, medical curricula lacked sufficient focus on technology, and reports of medical errors due to technology misuse further highlighted an educational gap. Rather than training medical doctors to be more technologically competent or engineers to be more medically knowledgeable, the university proposed a new discipline that merges both fields—producing professionals capable of integrating scientific, technological, and medical expertise in patient care.
This chapter explores how design-based education, commonly used in engineering, can be a framework for developing technical-medical expertise. Design science, also known as an ‘engineering approach,’ is proposed as a solution to two key challenges: (1) the educational problem of how students can learn to apply their knowledge to real-world clinical problems, and (2) the design problem of ensuring effective knowledge transfer so that students can use technology effectively in medical practice.
A key feature of the curriculum is its reliance on a heuristic design approach, which serves as a guiding mechanism for both students and teachers. This structured approach enables students to systematically analyze and solve medical-technical challenges, providing them with a transferable strategy for future problem-solving. For teachers, this approach helps in integrating disciplinary core concepts into the broader Technical Medicine framework, ensuring a coherent and transparent educational structure.