Never before in history healthcare faced more challenges then nowadays. Not only budget cuts, shortage of skilled personnel and doubling demand are at hitting the branches but also two other autonomous developments leverage this even more : exponential technology and the empowered patient.

With the increase of technological possibilities that i.e. thrive e-health (empowered in my definition) possibilities hit health(care) with almost lightning speed and nearly everything is possible at costs that drop swiftly to fractions of “traditional” diagnostics, monitoring and treatment.

The internet for one has brought knowledge and options to patient who are looking for it in high numbers, almost 65% visits Dr. Google before the step into the doctors office, and almost 50% of them afterwards. People expect understandable information that is findable at the moment THEY need it. Just like travel and music industry has seen, reviewing the doctors will take a high paced route into driving choices by patients with their feet, leaving non empowering doctors and institutions in despair.

All of this also brings great opportunities like the rise of crowdsourcing for health (C4H) where the public and health professionals gather online or in real life to collect data, experiences options or even money to improve their health(care).

It is at the intersection of data and narration that new changes are to be found for coping with the challenges we are facing : let’s start listening to each other !

From all professions in healthcare most likely nursing and General Practitioners will be impacted the most by the ongoing change. Are we ready for this, are we willing to change the curriculum swiftly or will we be bypassed by robots and other technology ?

Lucien Engelen, directeur van het Radboud REshape Center, gaat in dit seminar in op de invloed die technologische ontwikkelingen, met name op het gebied van ICT, zullen hebben in de nationale en internationale gezondheidszorg. Hij biedt het publiek inzicht in de stimulerende rol die technologie kan hebben in het versterken van de gezondheidszorg, maar ook het verbeteren van de relatie tussen zorgaanbieders en zorgnemers. Hij zal schetsen hoe de zorg efficiënter, goedkoper en werkbaarder wordt gemaakt door de ondersteuning van ehealth, social media en patient empowerment. Na het bijwonen van deze lezing heeft de toehoorder een gedegen beeld van de ontwikkelingen op technologisch vlak gedurende de aankomende 5 tot 10 jaar.