Digital Health in the Circular Economy (DiCE) project was created to bring key stakeholders together to address the environmental challenges associated with the growing use of digital healthcare products. DiCE will support the transition from a fragmented and linear “take-make-waste” business model for digital healthcare products towards a circular and sustainable one, allowing the reuse of products and recovery of components and raw materials.
In this newsletter you will find the most recent updates on the project: what happened at the second physical DiCE consortium meeting in Geneva, how the project is progressing, and more information on DiCE partners.
DiCE consortium meeting and interactive workshops at WRF’23
Upon invitation of the World Resources Forum, DiCE partners headed to Geneva for their second physical consortium meeting and live workshops in the first week of September. During the two-day meeting, held in the fringes of the WRF’23 conference, partners focussed on areas of current activity: circular design; technology and processes for waste management; reverse logistics, refurbishment and recycling; citizen engagement and influencing consumer behaviour; performance assessment, monitoring, and demonstration of transitions; and exploitation.
Outside of the consortium meeting partners were very active in the main WRF conference, hosting two workshops. One discussed the results of recent 'Sustain-a-thons' delivered by DiCE, covering cultural and behavioural differences between Belgium, Spain, and Slovenia as well as the values that motivate citizens to return items for refurbishment or recycling and how they could be further incentivised. The other workshop shed light on the intertwined circular recovery flows of digital health devices. Attendees were encouraged to ponder two questions:
- How can economic viability be balanced in a circular economy?
- How can perceived safety and regulatory risks for circular health devices be overcome?
In addition to the workshops, the project was also pleased to be able to interact with delegates at a dedicated DiCE stand. Visitors were presented with a medical device built from LEGO® and were asked to disassemble it and extract the printed circuit board and the battery as fast as they could and also to suggest improvements to the design. This animated exercise attracted many attendees and demonstrated the importance of circular design and cooperation, core elements of DiCE.
The meetings were a perfect occasion not only to meet partners in person, but also to benefit from the expertise of the DiCE Advisory Board and to discuss important points and plans with the external stakeholders present at the conference.
Design sprints success
Following three successful Sustain-a-thon sessions in Belgium, Spain and Slovenia, over the summer DiCE partners (Games for Health, LiCalab, Intras, Regional Development Agency of Podravje – Maribor) undertook a series of design sprints.
The design sprints followed a very similar format to the sustain-a -thons, centring on consultation with citizens, including healthcare professionals and patients. The sessions developed, iterated, and reviewed potential influencing strategies to collect and recycle e-waste deriving from digital healthcare devices. These will be further refined by DiCE partners before being analysed and discussed by the same participants.
In this phase of the project, after carefully examining the preliminary findings of previous Sustain-a-thon sessions, our researchers are focussing on two specific products: the smart pill box and a smart wearable sensor.
A circular economy for medical devices
In May, Tamara Hoveling from TU Delft presented the first part of her PhD research at Going Green – CARE INNOVATION 2023 in Vienna. This paper is part of the DiCE project and highlights some barriers and opportunities for circularising laparoscopic devices.
Site visit in Valladolid
In July, Fundación INTRAS, WEEE Forum, and Fundación ECOLEC visited a PreZero España recycling facility in Valladolid (Spain) to assess the potential synergies of its reverse logistics system for DiCE in the context of the pilot planned in this region of Spain. The site in question manages wastes collected by SIGRE, the Spanish Producer Responsibility Organisation for medical waste.
Designing a sustainable transition in the MedTech industry
TU Delft graduate, Dorien van Dolderen's project explored how the circular economy could be implemented for single-use surgical devices like the endocutter (a device also covered by DiCE project). This is how the conceptual service design “MedFlo” was born.
Calling all Belgian stakeholders: join OVAM and DiCE for an interesting session at UZ Ghent!
OVAM (Openbare Afvalstoffenmaatschappij voor het Vlaamse Gewest) and DiCE will join forces for an afternoon session at UZ Ghent in late November. This particular event will unveil OVAM's latest study on the battery waste stream to better map any ‘leakages’ from the operation theatre and introduce DiCE project to Flemish speaking stakeholders in Belgium. An invitation with more details will soon follow, don't forget to check your inbox!
Meet our partners!
In this series, project partners introduce themselves and discuss their reasons for joining DiCE in a video recorded at the very first consortium meeting in 2022. With the benefit of a year of DiCE research behind them, they also elaborate on their outlook for the project's future.
1| Discover why Copenhagen Business School (CBS) joined the project here.
2| We also asked Sonia Valdivia, Scientific Director of the World Resources Forum, why they joined the project.
3| Join Jeremy Faludi, assistant professor of sustainable design engineering at TU Delft as he explains why they joined a project and in particularl, what he thinks DiCE can achieve.
4 | Listen to Rob Tieben's enthusiastic introduction to Games for Health and the DiCE project.
DiCE joins International E-Waste Day
International E-Waste Day is an annual awareness raising event initiated by our project partner, the WEEE Forum and its members. It takes place every year on 14th of October and aims to highlight the growing issue of electronic waste and promote responsible e-waste management.
This year, International E-Waste Day is focussing on "invisible e-waste" such as wearable medical devices, toys, and other electronic items that often go unrecognised and, consequently, are not properly recycled within the appropriate waste stream.
DiCE puts great emphasis on the proper collection of digital health devices and has been researching consumer behaviour to better understand how to influence this to make improvements.
While our solutions are still being developed, we encourage you to join International E-Waste Day and help raise awareness of "invisible e-waste"!
Sharing is caring
Do you know someone in your local network who would be interested in the outcomes of DiCE? Click here to download our leaflet in Slovenian, Flemish or Spanish. English speakers are no exception either, find your copy here! All interested parties are also invited to register to the DiCE network!👇
Join our network!
Stakeholders’ contributions are crucial for the project! Our goal is to create a network that will provide feedback to enable us to understand end user needs, collect data, test outcomes and raise awareness through sharing results.
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