Willem van den Brink

Research area

I work on developing digital biomarkers based on wearable technologies such as smartwatches, smartphones, and medical patches. These enable continuous, non-invasive monitoring of physiological processes. My research combines sensor technology, data science, social innovation, and clinical applications to improve diagnostics and prevention in chronic diseases.

At TNO, I am leading the Digital Biomarker Lab, featuring projects on cardiometabolic diseases, inflammatory conditions, and diabetes. I lead research within the ENGAGE, IBDigital, DIMPLAD, and iCARE4CVD projects, collaborating with public and private partners to validate and implement digital biomarkers in practice. My ambition is to make health monitoring accessible, reliable, and personalized, shifting the focus from clinic to home, from care to prevention.

Projects

IBDigital: A public-private partnership, coordinated by TNO, aiming to enhance remote monitoring and enable early detection of IBD flares through digital biomarkers. It has the potential to greatly improve patient care and optimize healthcare efficiency.

iCARE4CVD: A public private partnership focusing on earlier and more precise diagnosis, better subgroup classification, clearer risk stratification to guide timely intervention, prediction of individual treatment response, and inclusion of patient-reported outcomes. As one of the partners, TNO leads drives the development of meaningful digital biomarkers and coordinates activities on regulatory, legal, and policy aspects.

ENGAGE: public-private partnership aimed at developing meaningful digital biomarkers for individuals with type 2 diabetes, with an emphasis on macro- and microvascular complications. ENGAGE incorporates social innovation to integrate the perspectives of individuals with type 2 diabetes and other stakeholders regarding what to measure, how to measure it, and how to use it for self-management, clinical decision-making, and real-world evidence collection.

2DIAREM: public private partnership in developing a digital biomarker for TNO's diabetes subtyping technology. This technology can recognize insulin resistance that is specific to certain organs, allowing for personalized lifestyle recommendations that are more effective in preventing and managing type 2 diabetes. However, because it requires an oral glucose tolerance test and multiple blood samples, it may be difficult to implement on a large scale. Therefore, digital biomarker alternatives that rely on continuous glucose monitoring data are being considered to enhance the usability and scalability of diabetes subtyping.

BioCurity: aims to detect and monitor metabolic syndrome in a secure digital ecosystem. Specifically, I'm responsible for developing and integrating blood pressure variability as a promising digital biomarker for metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular risk.

Recent publications

• Van Den Brink, W. J., Oosterman, J. E., Smid, D. J., De Vries, H. J., Atsma, D. E., Overeem, S., & Wopereis, S. (2025). Sleep as a window of cardiometabolic health: The potential of digital sleep and circadian biomarkers. Digital Health, 11.

• Van Den Brink, W. J., Van Den Broek, T. J., Wopereis, S., Difrancesco, S., Van Der Horst, F. A. L., & De Hoogh, I. M. (2024). Feasibility of digital phenotyping based on continuous glucose monitoring to support personalized lifestyle medicine in type 2 diabetes. Maturitas, 194, 108188.
• Bakker, J. P., Barge, R., Centra, J., Cobb, B., Cota, C., Guo, C. C., Hartog, B., Horowicz-Mehler, N., Izmailova, E. S., Manyakov, N. V., McClenahan, S., Motola, S., Patel, S., Paun, O., Schoone, M., Sezgin, E., Switzer, T., Tandon, A., Van Den Brink, W., . . . Goldsack, J. C. (2025). V3+ extends the V3 framework to ensure user-centricity and scalability of sensor-based digital health technologies. Npj Digital Medicine, 8(1).
• Wei, J. C. J., Van Den Broek, T. J., Van Baardewijk, J. U., Van Stokkum, R., Kamstra, R. J. M., Rikken, L., Gijsbertse, K., Uzunbajakava, N. E., & Van Den Brink, W. J. (2024). Validation and user experience of a dry electrode based Health Patch for heart rate and respiration rate monitoring. Scientific Reports, 14(1).
• Cuperus, L. J. A., Bult, L., Van Zelst, C. M., Van Den Brink, W. J., Kamstra, K. R. J. M., Van Den Broek, T. J., Van Den Eijnden, M. A. C., Panditha, P., Veen, J. C. C. M. I. ’., & Braunstahl, G. (2024). Wearable technology for detection of COPD exacerbations: feasibility of the Health Patch. ERJ Open Research, 10(6), 00396–02024.
• Willem van den Brink, Tim van den Broek, Salvator Palmisano, Suzan Wopereis, Iris de Hoogh (2022). Digital biomarkers for personalized nutrition: predicting meal moments and interstitial glucose with non-invasive wearable technologies. Nutrients. (pdf)

• Willem van den Brink, Robbert Bloem, Adithya Ananth, Thiru Kanagasabapathi, Arjen Amelink, Jildau Bouwman, Gerwin Gelinck, Sjaak van Veen, Andre Boorsma, Suzan Wopereis (2021) Digital Resilience Biomarkers for Personalized Health Maintenance and Disease Prevention. (pdf)