The Communication Psychology course uses the new laboratory to measure human performance parameters.
On December 9, 2016, the Medical Technology Laboratory in Görlitz presented its teaching materials and research projects to representatives of the Saxon State Medical Association in the district of Görlitz for the first time.
The Communication Psychology course uses the laboratory to measure human performance parameters for application-oriented research and teaching. In the Master's degree course in Social Gerontology, these measurement methods are used to record physical and cognitive vitality parameters of ageing. The Corporal Plus psychometric test is also used to test fitness to drive and in the Medical Psychological Examination (MPU), as well as a hearing test (audiometer) and the Vistec Visiolite eye test device.
Visitors showed particular interest in the presentation by Tino Schmidt, who presented current medical technology applications.
Together with Dresden University Hospital, a computer-assisted learning therapy is being developed for home use to treat the most common mental disorder in children and young people (ADHD). It is based on a mobile measurement of brain waves in the patient's natural everyday environment.
However, the focus of the new research approach is the prevention of illnesses long before they occur. According to a study commissioned by the German government, everyday stress in the workplace is the main cause of chronic illnesses in the long term. 82% of the 17,000 respondents stated that they had at least one health problem due to stress in the workplace (Bundesstressreport 2012).
The rate of sickness-related absences is above average in the most important growth areas - care for the elderly and the future jobs of Industry 4.0 (DGB, 2016).
To counteract this problem, new technological processes such as miniaturized long-term ECGs (electrocardiography to examine the activity of the heart) and low-energy CPR measuring circuits are being developed in cooperation with the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus (Institute for Medical Technology/Medical Informatics), which can continuously record the vital data of users over several months - in order to be able to use extremely sensitive measuring methods to identify risks in good time, which would otherwise only develop into illnesses over the course of several years.
This approach breaks new ground, as the usual psychological stress and strain measurement methods used to date are based on subjective questionnaires and interviews. The laboratory is therefore supervised by occupational and organizational psychologist Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Matthias Schmidt.
