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From idea to prototype: the 'Infuuts’

Physician-researcher Bernadette Jeremiasse saw parents in the Máxima Center running behind their cycling child. How much fun is it to race through the orange corridors when you're admitted in the hospital? Bernadette: 'The parents should be able to keep up with the clumsy hoses and a pole full of infusions! I thought: this must be solvable'. The idea came up for an ‘Infuuts’ (Dutch for bicycle (fiets) and infusion). In the meantime a prototype has been made. Hopefully there will soon be more ‘infuutsen’ in the Máxima Center, because they contribute to maximum exercise for children with cancer.
Prototype
Bernadette tells: 'I made a sketch of a bicycle with the infusion pole but that's more difficult than you
think. It should be safe, stable, not too heavy and unwieldy'. She came into contact with the department Medical Technology and Clinical Physics (MTKF) of the UMC Utrecht where Jesse Bosma is working. He is a medical product designer. Bernadette and Jesse worked on a prototype together. Jeroen from ‘the atelier', as the workshop MTKF is called, carried it out. A nice red bike that is put over the foot of an infusion pole was made.

Development
‘We now have a prototype of a children's bike that can move an infusion pole. The children of designer Jesse Bosma (3 and 5 years) have already cycled on it. And now comes the phase of testing. Together with physiotherapists, nurses and medical technicians we are going to make a prospective risk inventory. We are very curious whether the risks we are going to discover are acceptable and if not, whether adjustments can be made so that my idea can become reality', says Bernadette.

Next steps
An improved prototype is the next step in the process. It is important to produce the ‘Infuuts’. Bernadette: 'We won 5,000 euros with the Onco Care Challenge and hopefully that's an initial capital for the production of the first copies. We hope that there will be bike makers or companies who want to help us. The children who can use the infuuts often stay for a long time in the Princess Máxima Center. For the motor development it is very important that children with cancer, like healthy children, play and exercise as much as possible. And how much fun it is when kids are cycling around in the hallways or courtyard garden? We also think that cycling will be safer than it is now.