Toespraak minister Edith Schippers bij Startup2Scale-up dag, Amsterdam, 7 juni 2016
Ondernemen in de zorg is als het oplossen van de Rubiks kubus. Je moet slim zijn, creatief en volhouden. Dat zei minister Schippers van VWS tijdens de Startup2Scale-up dag, dinsdag 7 juni 2016 in Amsterdam. Ze kondigde aan de komende 4 jaar € 20 miljoen uit te trekken voor ondersteuning en begeleiding van MKB-ondernemers bij de opschaling van goede e-health initiatieven in het zogenoemde Fast Track eHealth initiatief.
De toespraak is alleen in het Engels beschikbaar.
Goodmorning!
Remember this? [showing a Rubiks cube]
Remember how you tried and tried?
How Rubiks cube was driving you mad sometimes. Maybe you were even tempted to just take it apart. Or to give up and throw it out of the window.
Still, people managed to solve the puzzle.
Being an entrepreneur in healthcare is like trying to solve the Rubiks cube.
It is not only about being smart. It is not only about being creative. To solve the puzzle you need stamina as well. You need all three to beat the system.
It is not easy:
Patients aren’t always aware you’ve just launched a new product or service to improve their lives. And if they are, they will ask questions about their privacy. No one wants their blood pressure to turn up on Facebook.
Disruptive technologies sometimes worry healthcare workers. Your brilliant ideas may be a threat to the doctors' business model.
Then there’s the establishment. Always hard to convince to change.
Even harder when the idea was not their own.
There’s a real threat that a great idea remains just that: a great idea.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Since the internet has become omnipresent, apps and mobile devices have changed the daily lives of billions of people. We no longer do without them. Our kids can’t do without them. And even most grandparents can’t do without them. Yet, in healthcare digital technology is slow to catch on. And when it does, it’s used as an addition to traditional working methods, instead of a replacement. Doing things differently is never easy, so we have to join forces. Because we are missing out on a chance to improve healthcare and lower the costs at the same time. Since it is neither efficient for professionals, nor is it cost effective.
There is more to consider. Change is unavoidable. It is time to stop looking at healthcare merely in terms of illness to be treated in hospitals. Not meaning we stop treating patients altogether. However, the focus in healthcare will shift towards prevention and to coping with illness independently of others. To make life easier for patients. Healthcare will evolve around the question: what do people need to live active lives, despite their age or chronic conditions.
It is my firm belief it can only be done with smart innovations. Innovations connecting people. Connecting care professionals like GP’s and surgeons working together via their smartphones, patients and professionals using skype or facetime in consultations. Patients connecting to their own health records. Enabling them to take control of their own healthcare.
People’s demand for these types of solutions in healthcare will ultimately accelerate change. Millions of people are already using diet and exercise apps to monitor their eating habits and physical well-being. Kilometers and calories are being tracked, stored and analyzed. Healthcare will have to make that change, to improve the quality, to remain accessible to all patients, to lower the costs.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Our healthcare systems are complex and highly regulated. And proper financing is always a problem. At the same time there are huge opportunities for start-ups. Patients are ready for it.
Yet, a great idea is only the beginning. To move forward you need a support network, partners in crime, so to speak.
You need legal and financial wizards. Most of all: you need to involve patients and care professionals. People who are going to use your innovations. Take Google glass for instance: great idea, brilliant technology, but people didn’t like the looks of it. Back to the drawing board. Google is now talking to Rayban and Oakley, I hear.
We want to help you move forward. To support you in taking your business to the next level.
It is with great pleasure I can tell you we have made available € 20 million for the next four years with that exact goal.
The program is called Fast Track eHealth.
Think of it as a highway to help you find investors, or gain access to international markets. To help you remove the obstacles you encounter. Maybe even to close a deal with investors, insurers or care professionals to adopt your product.
It is a public private partnership including partners like banks, investors, insurers, innovation networks and so on. A partnership in close cooperation with Startupdelta 2020. You’ll hear from its new envoy - his Royal Highness Prince Constantijn van Oranje - in a plenary interview in the afternoon.
The Fast Track eHealth program will start in October. You will have to let us know about your specific obstacles, enabling us to tailor support. First chance to do so, is today. You’ll meet people from the ministry as well as investors and other entrepreneurs. You can take part in the Scale up boot camp, learn more about the community for healthcare innovators, that is being launched. And find out about the Scale up guide, that is available. A full and inspiring schedule.
To finish, ladies and gentlemen, you are the smart ones, you are the creative ones. You are the ones with the ability to go off the beaten track. It is people like you who can ignite the future of healthcare. It’s not easy, don’t give up! And solve the puzzle!
Good luck!