Cooperation between DHENN and EDIH NN accelerates deployment of AI and robotization in healthcare practice.
The Northern Netherlands is joining forces to make healthcare future-proof. Within the Digital Health Ecosystem Noord-Nederland (DHENN) and the European Digital Innovation Hub Noord-Nederland (EDIH NN), healthcare institutions, knowledge partners, governments and technology companies work together structurally. The collaboration accelerates the deployment of AI, robotization and other digital innovations to keep healthcare affordable, workable and people-oriented.
EDIH NN, with NOM as lead agency, plays a connecting role between the healthcare sector and the business community.
Making healthcare innovations succeed faster
'Healthcare is facing an enormous task,' says Martin Smit, director of the UMCG Innovation Center and representative of DHENN. 'The demand for care is growing, but the number of professionals is not. Only by using technology intelligently can we maintain the quality and affordability of care. For this we need the business community.'
This is exactly what the cooperation focuses on. DHENN represents the ecosystem around digital health; EDIH NN brings together the business community and technological solutions. 'Nine out of ten healthcare innovations fail in the pilot phase,' says Paul Mulder, innovation broker Life Science & Health at EDIH NN. 'By better aligning healthcare demand and business supply, we increase the chances of innovations succeeding.'
Technology in the service of healthcare
The collaboration ensures that healthcare institutions get faster access to relevant technology, while companies better understand what healthcare really needs. 'The biggest challenge is that technology in healthcare is actually applied,' says Smit. 'That requires a sharp picture of what innovations healthcare needs, so companies can develop the right solutions accordingly.'
All innovations serve healthcare, emphasizes Leo van der Burg, business developer at FME, consortium partner of EDIH NN. 'We focus on applications in which AI, robotization and digitization come together. Such systems take over routine tasks and support professionals in complex decisions, while the control remains with humans.'
Towards a healthier Northern Netherlands
The joint approach strengthens the innovative power of the region and connects knowledge, care and business in one development process. This increases the chance that care innovations will actually be applied, with benefits for institutions, entrepreneurs and patients.
This way the cooperation contributes directly to the most important goal: a healthier Northern Netherlands.