{"id":13134,"date":"2025-07-08T10:28:19","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T08:28:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/balancebelt.net\/?p=13134"},"modified":"2025-09-26T16:03:01","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T14:03:01","slug":"how-a-piece-of-billiard-cloth-led-to-medical-innovation-balancebelt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/balancebelt.net\/en\/how-a-piece-of-billiard-cloth-led-to-medical-innovation-balancebelt\/","title":{"rendered":"How a piece of billiard cloth led to medical innovation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t<div id=\"fws_69febbe29d9cc\"  data-column-margin=\"default\" data-midnight=\"dark\"  class=\"wpb_row vc_row-fluid vc_row\"  style=\"padding-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; \"><div class=\"row-bg-wrap\" data-bg-animation=\"none\" data-bg-animation-delay=\"\" data-bg-overlay=\"false\"><div class=\"inner-wrap row-bg-layer\" ><div class=\"row-bg viewport-desktop\"  style=\"\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"row_col_wrap_12 col span_12 dark left\">\n\t<div  class=\"vc_col-sm-12 wpb_column column_container vc_column_container col no-extra-padding inherit_tablet inherit_phone \"  data-padding-pos=\"all\" data-has-bg-color=\"false\" data-bg-color=\"\" data-bg-opacity=\"1\" data-animation=\"\" data-delay=\"0\" >\n\t\t<div class=\"vc_column-inner\" >\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\n<div class=\"wpb_text_column wpb_content_element \" >\n\t<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\">\n\t\t<p><strong>Before a medical innovation from the Brightlands Health Campus reaches the patient, a great deal of business and organizational work needs to be done. This process can easily take ten years, as representatives from small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and scientists heard during a presentation in Maastricht on Thursday. The campus is expanding and allocating more space for SMEs.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div> \n\n\t<div  class=\"vc_col-sm-12 wpb_column column_container vc_column_container col no-extra-padding inherit_tablet inherit_phone \"  data-padding-pos=\"all\" data-has-bg-color=\"false\" data-bg-color=\"\" data-bg-opacity=\"1\" data-animation=\"\" data-delay=\"0\" >\n\t\t<div class=\"vc_column-inner\" >\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\n<div class=\"wpb_text_column wpb_content_element \" >\n\t<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\">\n\t\t<p data-start=\"57\" data-end=\"277\">Maastricht (NL) \u2014 Millions of people worldwide suffer from balance disorders. In the best-case scenario, they can walk with a cane. But there are also children who, without assistance, cannot go outside at all\u2014let alone ride a bike. For them, Professor of Clinical Vestibulology Herman Kingma came up with an idea around fifteen years ago: a belt, now marketed under the name BalanceBelt. \u201cSo that you fall less easily and feel more confident.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"57\" data-end=\"277\">The BalanceBelt, essentially a balance belt, is a belt equipped with sensors and software that instructs the wearer\u2019s brain to maintain balance. Kingma\u2019s team approached Maastricht Instruments, a company affiliated with the Health Campus, which develops prototypes with a team of thirty engineers: the first step in assessing whether a scientific idea can be turned into a product.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"661\" data-end=\"1081\"><strong data-start=\"661\" data-end=\"679\">Billiard Cloth<\/strong><br data-start=\"679\" data-end=\"682\" \/>Patrick Machiels, director of Maastricht Instruments, recalls that the first prototype in 2013 was made from a piece of billiard cloth by the mother of a researcher. \u201cWhen more parties and hospitals began showing interest, we continued development. Eventually, we had a belt that cost us \u20ac12,000. Patients in the first clinical trials were so enthusiastic that they wanted to pay for it themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1083\" data-end=\"1474\">The belt was then transferred in 2018 to the SME company Elitac, which specializes in combining textiles and electronics, and further refined it under the brand name <em data-start=\"1249\" data-end=\"1262\">BalanceBelt<\/em>. In 2021, the invention received the necessary certification and was placed into a separate private company. Convincing hospitals and insurers can easily take several more years, says Charles Pallandt of Elitac.<\/p>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"img-with-aniamtion-wrap \" data-max-width=\"100%\" data-max-width-mobile=\"default\" data-shadow=\"none\" data-animation=\"none\" >\n      <div class=\"inner\">\n        <div class=\"hover-wrap\"> \n          <div class=\"hover-wrap-inner\">\n            <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"img-with-animation skip-lazy \" data-delay=\"0\" height=\"1707\" width=\"2560\" data-animation=\"none\" src=\"https:\/\/balancebelt.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Brightlands_Maastricht_Health_Campus_20250703_00040-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/balancebelt.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Brightlands_Maastricht_Health_Campus_20250703_00040-scaled.jpg 2560w, https:\/\/balancebelt.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Brightlands_Maastricht_Health_Campus_20250703_00040-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/balancebelt.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Brightlands_Maastricht_Health_Campus_20250703_00040-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/balancebelt.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Brightlands_Maastricht_Health_Campus_20250703_00040-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/balancebelt.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Brightlands_Maastricht_Health_Campus_20250703_00040-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/balancebelt.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Brightlands_Maastricht_Health_Campus_20250703_00040-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/balancebelt.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Brightlands_Maastricht_Health_Campus_20250703_00040-18x12.jpg 18w, https:\/\/balancebelt.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Brightlands_Maastricht_Health_Campus_20250703_00040-900x600.jpg 900w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\" \/>\n          <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n      <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div> \n<\/div><\/div>\n\t\t<div id=\"fws_69febbe29e2b1\"  data-column-margin=\"default\" data-midnight=\"dark\"  class=\"wpb_row vc_row-fluid vc_row\"  style=\"padding-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; \"><div class=\"row-bg-wrap\" data-bg-animation=\"none\" data-bg-animation-delay=\"\" data-bg-overlay=\"false\"><div class=\"inner-wrap row-bg-layer\" ><div class=\"row-bg viewport-desktop\"  style=\"\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"row_col_wrap_12 col span_12 dark left\">\n\t<div  class=\"vc_col-sm-12 wpb_column column_container vc_column_container col no-extra-padding inherit_tablet inherit_phone \"  data-padding-pos=\"all\" data-has-bg-color=\"false\" data-bg-color=\"\" data-bg-opacity=\"1\" data-animation=\"\" data-delay=\"0\" >\n\t\t<div class=\"vc_column-inner\" >\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\n<div class=\"wpb_text_column wpb_content_element \" >\n\t<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\">\n\t\t<p data-start=\"1476\" data-end=\"2060\"><strong data-start=\"1476\" data-end=\"1499\">Children&#8217;s Hospital<\/strong><br data-start=\"1499\" data-end=\"1502\" \/>Pallandt: \u201cClinicians don\u2019t easily abandon existing treatment methods. Even now, the BalanceBelt isn\u2019t reimbursed by all health insurers, because they still need to be convinced of its cost-effectiveness. Currently, BalanceBelt is not yet part of the standard healthcare package. On top of that, medical device approval differs from country to country. We are now allowed to enter the European market. At a children\u2019s hospital in London, we saw that young patients were able to go outside again thanks to our belt. That really gets to you.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"2062\" data-end=\"2505\">The production cost was reduced from \u20ac12,000 to well under \u20ac1,000. This became possible thanks to collaboration with an SME on the Bouwberg business park in Brunssum: AIM acts as an independent partner for the production of medical devices and works with companies around the world. The company, which has 55 employees, ensures a reliable supply chain, quality assurance, and final assembly, says sales &amp; engineering manager Emile Arnoldussen.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"2507\" data-end=\"2897\">Arnoldussen points to an image of a device that keeps the temperature in operating rooms at 37 degrees Celsius: \u201cWe help start-ups and scale-ups that are a step further along, with cost optimization among other things\u2014but many of our clients are international players. Together with the Health Campus and partners, we also brought the Vibrobot to market: a robot used for complex research.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"2899\" data-end=\"3592\">The Health Campus has a team that helps develop revenue models for scientific ideas, and it also aims to attract more companies in the medical and life sciences sectors. This would allow ideas to be realized more quickly. In the meantime, 139 companies are now based there, including major players like Medtronic. The City of Maastricht has worked with Brightlands to support expansion. In recent years, some companies had to relocate to Chemelot due to a lack of space. Maastricht city councilor Hubert Mackus says that \u201csignificant investment\u201d is being made into the campus at Randwyck: \u201cWe hope to attract many more SME companies and are also creating physical space to accommodate them.\u201d<\/p>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div> \n<\/div><\/div>\n\t\t<div id=\"fws_69febbe29e4de\"  data-column-margin=\"default\" data-midnight=\"dark\"  class=\"wpb_row vc_row-fluid vc_row\"  style=\"padding-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; \"><div class=\"row-bg-wrap\" data-bg-animation=\"none\" data-bg-animation-delay=\"\" data-bg-overlay=\"false\"><div class=\"inner-wrap row-bg-layer\" ><div class=\"row-bg viewport-desktop\"  style=\"\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"row_col_wrap_12 col span_12 dark left\">\n\t<div  class=\"vc_col-sm-12 wpb_column column_container vc_column_container col no-extra-padding inherit_tablet inherit_phone \"  data-padding-pos=\"all\" data-has-bg-color=\"false\" data-bg-color=\"\" data-bg-opacity=\"1\" data-animation=\"\" data-delay=\"0\" >\n\t\t<div class=\"vc_column-inner\" >\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\n<div class=\"wpb_text_column wpb_content_element \" >\n\t<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\">\n\t\t<h6 style=\"text-align: left;\"><em><span class=\"--l --r hover:bg-blue-100 hover:dark:bg-blue-600\"><span class=\"--l container-target\">Published<\/span><\/span> <span class=\"--l --r hover:bg-blue-100 hover:dark:bg-blue-600\"><span class=\"container-target\">on<\/span><\/span> <span class=\"--l --r hover:bg-blue-100 hover:dark:bg-blue-600\"><span class=\"container-target\">July<\/span><\/span> <span class=\"--l --r hover:bg-blue-100 hover:dark:bg-blue-600\"><span class=\"container-target\">4<\/span><\/span><span class=\"--l --r hover:bg-blue-100 hover:dark:bg-blue-600\"><span class=\"container-target\">,<\/span><\/span> <span class=\"--l --r hover:bg-blue-100 hover:dark:bg-blue-600\"><span class=\"container-target\">2025<\/span><\/span><span class=\"--l --r hover:bg-blue-100 hover:dark:bg-blue-600\"><span class=\"container-target\">,<\/span><\/span> <span class=\"--l --r hover:bg-blue-100 hover:dark:bg-blue-600\"><span class=\"container-target\">in<\/span><\/span> &#8220;<span class=\"--l --r hover:bg-blue-100 hover:dark:bg-blue-600\"><span class=\"container-target\">De<\/span><\/span> <span class=\"--l --r hover:bg-blue-100 hover:dark:bg-blue-600\"><span class=\"container-target\">Limburger&#8221;<\/span><\/span><span class=\"--l --r hover:bg-blue-100 hover:dark:bg-blue-600\"><span class=\"container-target\">, <\/span><\/span><span class=\"--l --r hover:bg-blue-100 hover:dark:bg-blue-600\"><span class=\"container-target\">Author<\/span><\/span><span class=\"--l --r hover:bg-blue-100 hover:dark:bg-blue-600\"><span class=\"container-target\">:<\/span><\/span> <span class=\"--l --r hover:bg-blue-100 hover:dark:bg-blue-600\"><span class=\"container-target\">Siebrand<\/span><\/span> <span class=\"--l --r hover:bg-blue-100 hover:dark:bg-blue-600\"><span class=\"--r container-target\">Vos<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/h6>\n<h6><em>Link to article: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.limburger.nl\/economie\/balanceerriem-van-een-idee-op-de-health-campus-in-maastricht-tot-een-product-dat-gemaakt-wordt-bij-een-mkb-bedrijf-in-brunssum\/75646183.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Click Here<\/a><\/em><\/h6>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div> \n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Before a medical innovation from the Brightlands Health Campus reaches the patient, a great deal of business and organizational work needs to be done. This process can easily take ten...","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":13149,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[171],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-13134","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.8 (Yoast SEO v26.7) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Brightlands &amp; BalanceBelt: Working Together for Better Health&quot; &#8212; BalanceBelt<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Discover how the collaboration between Brightlands Health Campus and BalanceBelt is transforming the lives of those with balance disorders.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/balancebelt.net\/en\/how-a-piece-of-billiard-cloth-led-to-medical-innovation-balancebelt\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How a piece of billiard cloth led to medical innovation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/balancebelt.net\/en\/how-a-piece-of-billiard-cloth-led-to-medical-innovation-balancebelt\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"BalanceBelt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TheBalanceBelt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-07-08T08:28:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-09-26T14:03:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/balancebelt.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Brightlands_Maastricht_Health_Campus_20250703_00040-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1707\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Anne Keusters\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@BalanceBelt_\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@BalanceBelt_\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Anne Keusters\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/balancebelt.net\/how-a-piece-of-billiard-cloth-led-to-medical-innovation-balancebelt\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/balancebelt.net\/how-a-piece-of-billiard-cloth-led-to-medical-innovation-balancebelt\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Anne Keusters\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/balancebelt.net\/nl\/#\/schema\/person\/22b319c25590625ab2996d5da965cc93\"},\"headline\":\"How a piece of billiard cloth led to medical innovation\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-07-08T08:28:19+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-26T14:03:01+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/balancebelt.net\/how-a-piece-of-billiard-cloth-led-to-medical-innovation-balancebelt\/\"},\"wordCount\":1295,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/balancebelt.net\/nl\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/balancebelt.net\/how-a-piece-of-billiard-cloth-led-to-medical-innovation-balancebelt\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/balancebelt.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Brightlands_Maastricht_Health_Campus_20250703_00040-scaled.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/balancebelt.net\/how-a-piece-of-billiard-cloth-led-to-medical-innovation-balancebelt\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/balancebelt.net\/how-a-piece-of-billiard-cloth-led-to-medical-innovation-balancebelt\/\",\"name\":\"Brightlands & BalanceBelt: Working Together for Better Health\\\" &#8212; 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