Fokko Wieringa, Ph.D

Fokko Pieter Wieringa (PhD) is Principal Scientist within the Health Department of IMEC the Netherlands, and a part-time associate professor of medical technology at the University Medical Centre Utrecht (UMCU). He has 38 years of experience in medical technology and is (co)inventor of 28 granted patents. From 1987-1997 he worked within the clinical physics department of Rijnstate hospital Arnhem, maintaining, evaluating, modifying and co-developing medical devices & clinical laboratory equipment. In 1997 he moved to TNO to perform technical evaluations for the CE-marking of medical devices as well as technology-related troubleshooting, technical mediation and incident investigations in hospitals. In addition to general safety aspects of medical technology, he specialized in the interactions of electricity and light with the human body. Within this context he co-authored several international safety standards and the EU-Directive on Optical Radiation Safety. Alongside his regular job at TNO he realized worlds’ first imaging PPG setup in 2005 and earned a PhD in Biomedical Photonics in 2007 at Erasmus MC, Rotterdam. Transferred to IMEC in 2017 to focus upon Wearable Health Solutions. Dr. Wieringa is a core driver of the Dutch Kidney Foundations’ NeoKidney initiative to develop a portable artificial kidney and European liaison to the international roadmap of the FDA/ASN Kidney Health Initiative (KHI). Dr. Wieringa is heavily interested in human factor engineering as well as interdisciplinary and translational research. Mandated by the Dutch Standards Institute (NEN) he represents the Netherlands within worldwide standardization of dialysis equipment (HD & PD), as well as for Photodynamic Therapy and Photodynamic Diagnosis (PDT/PDD). Dr. Wieringa is a member of Photonics 21 (WG3 Medical Photonics & WG5 Optical Sensing), the worldwide standardization organization IEC (TC62 Medical Devices) and of the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI). Since 2014 he is also a part-time associate professor of Medical Technology. First at Maastricht University, switching to UMC Utrecht in 2021 (in both cases at the Department of Nephrology). Since 2021 Dr. Wieringa is a member of the European Kidney Health Alliance (EKHA).

Dr. Wieringa is heavily interested in human factor engineering as well as interdisciplinary and translational research.

Mandated by the Dutch Standards Institute (NEN) he represents the Netherlands within worldwide standardization of dialysis equipment (HD & PD), as well as for Photodynamic Therapy and Photodynamic Diagnosis (PDT/PDD) and ECG.

Dr. Wieringa is a member of Photonics 21 (WG3 Medical Photonics & WG5 Optical Sensing), the worldwide standardization organization IEC (TC62 Medical Devices) and of the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI).

From 2014-2020 he was a part-time associate professor of Medical Technology at Maastricht University, in 2021 this assignment moved to the University Medical Center of Utrecht (in both cases at the Nephrology departments).