Care is increasingly moving to people's homes. New ideas and solutions are needed to help residents live longer and more comfortably at home. This requires more cooperation from all parties in the healthcare chain – and from municipalities themselves, argue aldermen Saskia Bruines (finance, culture and economy) and Kavita Parbhudayal (work, neighborhoods and services, and driver of healthcare innovation) on 30 January during the annual ICT & health healthcare conference.

The Hague is growing and aging and faces major social and economic challenges. Aldermen Bruines and Parbhudayal are working together to keep healthcare future-proof and to boost The Hague's economy. Technological innovations are necessary to organize care and support in a smarter way and to stimulate self-reliance.

Start-up programs and investment funds

Alderman Bruines calls on start-ups to come up with new solutions. “These new ideas often come from start-ups. Think of the Wolk Hip Airbag, a beautiful company in The Hague. And Cue2Walk, who use smart signals to help Parkinson's patients.” To accelerate healthcare innovation and help start-ups understand the social domain, the municipality of The Hague has set up special programs and investment funds for start-ups. An example is the SocialTech Startup Network Series. In this program we check whether a product or service has added value for healthcare. The solutions are tested in test environments. This creates better products or services that can be implemented earlier in healthcare.

Working together and pooling knowledge

Accelerating the development and implementation of healthcare innovation also requires more cooperation. Alderman Parbhudayal: “I am in favor of municipalities working together and bundling the knowledge gained. When we see how many smart solutions are coming onto the market, we cannot afford to do pilots twice.” Parbhudayal also wants to make the step from pilot to investigative implementation. “To close a business case, sometimes three or four pilots are needed. We don't have that time anymore. Staff shortages are now visible everywhere. If we know that a product works, we as a municipality, health insurer and healthcare provider have to take risks and pull out the wallet.”

Innovative financing and funding

The biggest challenge is the financing and funding of innovations whose costs and benefits do not fall within one domain. “Innovative solutions also require innovative financing and funding. To scale, we must face the tough choices. We are happy to take the necessary steps together with municipalities, health insurers and healthcare organizations.”