In collaboration with Stichting Rijnstate Ziekenhuis (RST), a leading hospital in the East Netherlands region, two major healthcare challenges have been identified that impact the quality of patient care and healthcare professionals’ workflows. To address these challenges, four innovative SMEs have been selected—each challenge will be handled by a SME based in the Netherlands, with the support of a SME from another consortium region. These partnerships aim to foster interregional innovation while leveraging local expertise to create transformative healthcare solutions. Below, we introduce the four companies selected to address these challenges in the East Netherlands.
Hospital Challenge 1: DigiCare-Aware
Challenge overview
Rijnstate has already implemented remote patient monitoring through its Virtual Care Center. However, awareness and adoption among healthcare professionals remain limited. Despite the proven value of remote monitoring in maintaining accessibility to healthcare amidst growing demand, many healthcare professionals are unfamiliar with the possibilities or hesitant to adopt these tools. To scale remote patient monitoring and transform healthcare delivery, a solution is needed to engage and motivate healthcare professionals to embrace this digital healthcare innovation.
Proposed solution
Lets Get Digital! will focus on raising awareness and activating healthcare professionals at RST to use remote patient monitoring. The solution will provide clear, practical, and time-efficient information on the necessity and benefits of remote monitoring while addressing concerns such as high workloads and unfamiliarity with digital tools. This cultural shift is essential to transforming healthcare and making it future-proof, as more professionals begin integrating remote care into their practice.
IT Companies co-creating the solution:
- Buro StrakZ
Buro StrakZ specializes in the digital transformation of healthcare by focusing on engaging healthcare professionals. They will design and implement a creative awareness program tailored to the practical needs of Rijnstate’s healthcare workers. Their approach includes interactive sessions and communication strategies to promote adoption, with a focus on ensuring scalability across other digital tools and departments.
- Ontwerpwerk
Ontwerpwerk will support Buro StrakZ by designing impactful and user-friendly materials that communicate the benefits of remote patient monitoring. Their expertise in design will ensure the campaign resonates with healthcare professionals, encouraging widespread participation and adoption.
Hospital Challenge 2: DELSIS
Challenge overview
To maintain accessible and affordable healthcare, it is essential to empower patients to manage their health at home with minimal professional intervention. Promoting healthy lifestyles and self-management plays a vital role. However, there is a lack of tools to efficiently assess how much lifestyle support each patient needs, leading to both under- and over-provision of care. An effective method is needed to determine the right level of support for each patient to avoid unnecessary strain on healthcare resources.
Proposed solution
The Lifestyle Assessment Tool (LAT) will help healthcare professionals at Rijnstate efficiently assess patients’ self-management needs. By combining patient-completed questionnaires with environmental data (e.g., Geographic Information System, GIS), the tool will tailor lifestyle interventions to each patient’s needs. The LAT will enable healthcare professionals to manage larger caseloads with improved triage, reducing the need for hiring additional lifestyle coaches.
IT Companies co-creating the solution
- Health Coins BV
Health Coins BV will lead the development of LAT, a digital tool that personalizes lifestyle interventions based on patients’ health literacy and motivational profiles. The solution aims to optimize patient self-management and reduce unnecessary healthcare demand by streamlining the process of assessing support needs and connecting patients with the appropriate intervention.
- Health-Ecore
Through their expertise in health technology assessment (HTA), Health-Ecore will optimize patient engagement through interviews and analysis of the patient value chain. Additionally, Health-Ecore will explore the market for AI-based triage tools in European countries, resulting in a market report and advice on the future rollout of the LAT.
In the coming months, the selected SMEs will receive comprehensive support from HealthChain. They will engage in an intensive co-creation and piloting phase with the healthcare organization to test and validate their solutions in real-world settings. Additionally, they will gain access to expert guidance to refine their business strategies and scale their innovations for broader impact.
