During The Dutch Technology Week in 2016 I attended a very interesting event about how technology improves the quality of life of the ageing population.
The demand for healthcare that provides high quality at affordable costs is continuously growing. People when they are getting older they want to be self-sufficient for as long as possible, without having to leave the security of their own homes.
These technological innovations represent the target of the Slimmer Leven 2020 cooperative, a partnership within the Southeast of Netherlands with Brainport Eindhoven region at its core. With a good cooperation between the members of the cooperative, significant breakthroughs were achieved in care, living and well-being with the use of eHealth applications.
Among the many partners in the cooperative, Philips gave a general presentation during The Dutch Technology Week. Philips supports the HealthSuite digital platform that represents the link between the healthcare providers and the patients. The data is collected with well-established security protocols and stored in a cloud-based platform. The data is collected from various devices and sources, stored on the platform, correlated and analysed by professionals and a diagnostic of the current health status of the patient is released. The patients may have an online appointment with the doctor, via a videophone, in the comfort of their home, to update the progress done and for future tasks to be achieved. The Personal Health File provides directly to the patient all the medical data, which gives the opportunity for the people to understand better the diagnostic received, and to better manage their health in the future. While living at home independently, one can be included in an online community with other people that have similar health problems, and receive support.
Philips celebrated 125 years of innovation up to 15 May 2016. Philips doesn't innovate just for the sake of it, but it provides personalised technological solutions. I enjoyed watching, at the Philips Museum in Eindhoven, a small video that presents in a compact way so many years of technological design in medical imaging.
In the next ten years the demand for healthcare that provides a good trade-off between quality and affordability is rising, while the number of people working in healthcare is likely to be reduced. Making use of reliable technological innovations becomes a necessity for self-empowerment at an older age.
