• Professor of Intensive Care Medicine, with a focus on the integration of technology in patient care. • Program Director, MSc Technical Medicine. • For LDE (Leiden–Delft–Erasmus): Track Coordinator for the Technical Medicine Master’s track “Sensing and Stimulation”.

More information about Sesmu Arbous

• Professor of Intensive Care Medicine, with a focus on the integration of technology in patient care.
• Program Director, MSc Technical Medicine.
• For LDE (Leiden–Delft–Erasmus): Track Coordinator for the Technical Medicine Master’s track “Sensing and Stimulation”.

Integration of Technology and Data-Driven Care in Intensive Care Medicine

The Chair of Integration of Technology and Data-Driven Care in Intensive Care Medicine focuses on the responsible and meaningful use of data, digital technology, and artificial intelligence (AI) in intensive care practice. The intensive care unit continuously generates large volumes of heterogeneous data, ranging from high-frequency physiological monitoring and laboratory results to imaging and free-text documentation in the electronic health record. The central ambition is to translate these data into clinically meaningful insights—not as an end in itself, but to support better clinical decision-making, more personalized care, and a humane use of technology, within ethical and societal frameworks and with attention to sustainable healthcare.

The research lines of Sesmu Arbous encompass data-driven diagnostics and prognostication in the ICU, research into long-term outcomes of ICU survivors, and digital and home monitoring following ICU discharge. Monitoring data are combined with patient-reported outcomes to better understand recovery trajectories and to personalize care. A specific focus is placed on key gaps in data-driven and AI-based healthcare: the implementation gap and the limited evidence for clinical effectiveness. Therefore, the research does not focus solely on model development, but explicitly on their application in clinical practice, their integration into clinical workflows, and their demonstrable impact on decision-making, workload, and patient outcomes. Through this approach, these research lines aim to translate technological promise into tangible clinical and societal value.

Academic career

Sesmu Arbous has been a consultant anesthesiologist since 2003 and a consultant intensivist since 2005. Since 2005, she has been working as an anesthesiologist–intensivist in the Intensive Care Unit of the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC). She obtained her PhD cum laude at Utrecht University on 23 October 1998. The title of her doctoral thesis was “Anesthesia-related risk factors for perioperative severe morbidity and mortality.”

She delivered her inaugural lecture, entitled “Welke waarheid mag door” on 4 July 2025.

Activities