Federal Government Funds BTU Project for Smart Cold Therapy

Around 500,000 knee operations are carried out in Germany every year. Successful rehabilitation is a key factor in determining the long-term success of treatment. This is precisely where the new “CoolKnee” research project at the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus–Senftenberg (BTU) comes in. In collaboration with three medium-sized companies, the Department of Therapeutic Sciences II is developing a smart knee brace that combines modern materials technologies, innovative sensor technology and digital data analysis. The aim is to make therapeutic cooling following knee surgery more personalised, objective and scientifically sound in future.

Federal funding for innovative therapeutic technologies

This forward-looking collaborative project has a total budget of around 1.12 million euros. The consortium, comprising three medium-sized companies and the BTU, is supported by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy with total funding of over 650,000 euros. Of this, 280,000 euros is provided as full funding directly for the BTU’s scientific work.

Prof. Dr Sven Michel, Head of the Department of Therapy Sciences II, is the scientific director of the BTU sub-project. For many years, he has been conducting research into innovative technologies for exercise therapy and rehabilitation, as well as their scientific evaluation and implementation in medical practice. Within the joint project, the BTU is responsible for the scientific investigation of the functionality, therapeutic efficacy and quality of the overall system.

Many years of research as a foundation

Prof. Michel’s scientific work on standardised cold therapy dates back to 2012. Even then, concepts for sensor-assisted and personalised cold therapy were being developed and scientifically investigated. However, the technical implementation reached its limits due to the sensor technology, materials science, electronics and miniaturisation available at the time.

New technologies open up new possibilities

The “CoolKnee” project now marks the start of a new phase of development. Advances in smart textiles, flexible phase-change materials (PCM), miniaturised sensor systems, energy-efficient electronics and modern methods of digital data analysis now open up possibilities that were not feasible more than a decade ago. The aim is to combine these technological developments for the first time into a smart integrated system for post-operative physiotherapy treatment.

“Particularly following knee surgery, the quality of post-operative physiotherapy plays a decisive role in the healing process. Therapeutic cooling offers great potential, but has so far often been carried out without objective monitoring of the actual skin temperature. With CoolKnee, we aim to refine cold therapy scientifically and take it to a new level through smart sensor technology and digital solutions,” explains project leader Prof. Michel.

Smart knee brace for more precise therapy

At the heart of the development is an ergonomic knee brace featuring flexible cooling elements based on phase-change materials (PCM), integrated temperature sensors and a digital application for recording and analysing the measurement data. This is intended to allow the cooling to be individually adapted to the healing process and objectively documented. The combination of innovative textiles, smart sensor technology and evidence-based data analysis opens up new prospects for post-operative rehabilitation and the digitalisation of physiotherapy treatment methods.

Prospects for medical care

With ‘CoolKnee’, the BTU aims to consistently translate scientific findings into medical practice. The project combines therapeutic sciences, materials research, sensor technology and digitalisation into an innovative overall concept and is intended to pave the way for a new generation of smart medical devices.

With this funding, the BTU is further expanding its expertise in the fields of therapeutic sciences, sensor-assisted movement therapy and digital health technologies. At the same time, the project illustrates how long-standing scientific research can be translated into innovative solutions for healthcare in collaboration with small and medium-sized enterprises.