The Dutch healthcare system is at a critical juncture, facing unprecedented challenges such as a growing staff shortage, escalating costs, and increasing demand for care. This crisis, however, presents a unique opportunity to fundamentally reorganize healthcare delivery. Professors Maroeska Rovers and Jouke Tamsma, in their joint inaugural lecture, emphasize the need for collaboration and technological innovation to create a more sustainable and effective healthcare system.
The Need for Transformation
Technological advancements are reshaping healthcare delivery, and the need for transformation is urgent. Rovers, Professor of Evidence-Based Medical Technology and Innovation, highlights the unsustainable trajectory of current healthcare practices. “At the moment, one in six people works in healthcare. If we continue on this path, it will be one in three,” she warns. Tamsma, Professor of Principles of Technical Medicine in Clinical Practice, underscores the potential of Technical Medicine to enable more effective, safer, and more people-centered care.
Drawing Inspiration from the Delta Works
Rovers and Tamsma draw a powerful metaphor from the Netherlands’ most ambitious engineering feat: the Delta Works. Just as the country united after the 1953 flood disaster to construct a formidable flood defense system, they argue that a similar collective approach is needed to tackle the current healthcare challenges. The enemy is no longer water, but a shortage of workers and resources, a changing care landscape, health inequities, climate change, and the growing role of big tech.
Embracing AI and Regional Care Networks
A critical question is whether we are willing to entrust aspects of care to AI. Rovers suggests that if AI can perform tasks better than humans, it should be allowed to do so, freeing healthcare professionals to focus on what they do best: listening to and supporting patients. The professors predict that hospitals in 2040 will be smaller and more focused on high-tech specialized care, with patients being discharged sooner to community care settings. This shift creates opportunities for regional care networks, which can be enhanced by technology that understands people, such as remote care systems.
Expanding Technical Medicine Beyond Hospitals
Tamsma emphasizes the need to make technology understandable for everyone and to bring Technical Physicians beyond hospital walls. Their expertise is not only valuable in settings like intensive care units but also in elderly care, where they can help determine how to monitor frail patients using sensor data. This can lead to high-quality care with fewer staff, easing the pressure on the workforce.
Building the Delta Works of Healthcare
The double inaugural lecture by Rovers and Tamsma is a call to action for all stakeholders to come together to realize a flexible, resilient healthcare system where technology supports and understands people. With the help of Technical Medicine and collaboration across the healthcare ecosystem, they aim to make healthcare more available, accessible, safer, and more sustainable. This vision for the future of Dutch healthcare is ambitious, but the professors believe it is necessary to meet the challenges of tomorrow.
About the Professors
Prof. Dr. Maroeska Rovers has been the scientific director of the Technical Medical Centre since mid-2022 and is also Professor of Medical Technology & Innovation at Radboudumc in Nijmegen. Jouke Tamsma has been the medical director of the Technical Medical Centre since 2019 and has worked as an internist in vascular medicine at the LUMC since 2000. Their joint inaugural lecture marks the official acceptance of their professorships and sets the stage for their work in shaping the future of healthcare in the Netherlands.
