ActiZ and Nuts will jointly develop at least four digital applications aimed at integrated network care over the next two years. By reducing the distance between professionals and developers, digital applications will be applied faster and more widely on the shop floor, the two parties expect.
Branch association for elderly care ActiZ notes that the use of digital applications such as eOverdracht, regional cooperation around Evening, Night and Weekend care (ANW care) and the exchange of information from client files between, for example, general practitioner, district nursing and elderly care lags behind in practice.
Dialogue
To improve this, ActiZ aims for closer cooperation and consultation between care providers and suppliers. "Developers and architects from the Nuts community will enter into direct dialogue with care providers of ActiZ members, so that practical solutions connect to daily practice," ActiZ board member Aline Poolen clarifies the principle behind the cooperation.
Develop more efficiently
"Our role as suppliers is to support specific situations with practical solutions so that healthcare providers can work together effectively," adds director Thomas Ferguson of ICT supplier Gerimedica. "For suppliers, this also leads to more efficient working. By step-by-step implementation in dialogue with practitioners, we accelerate development."
Open source
The commitment of the Nuts member vendors is special from a technology perspective. In addition to pre-competitive cooperation on the infrastructure layer, the developers involved also want to make reusable technical building blocks open source available. Not only available for long-term care, but for the entire healthcare field. The application of "reusable technical building blocks" should contribute to faster and wider adoption, it was heard during a joint meeting of Nuts and ActiZ on Jan. 19, Jaarbeurs Utrecht. "It is a waste to rebuild every time," said one of the participants. "We can do much more together."
Letter of Intent
After the parties involved took an initial exploratory step in September, ActiZ, Stichting Nuts and affiliated suppliers formally sealed their cooperation on Jan. 19 with the signing of a letter of intent. In it, they promise to develop at least four practically applicable digital solutions over the next two years.
Flexible structure
To support this cooperation, ActiZ and Nuts have set up a flexible structure. This enables them to switch quickly at managerial, technical and executive levels. An important point of attention is that the solutions are in line with national initiatives such as the Integral Care Agreement (IZA) and the Electronic Data Exchange in Healthcare Act (Wegiz).
Data availability
Both ActiZ and Nuts consider data availability essential to organize future-proof care for the elderly and chronically ill. The two parties thus strongly endorse the National Vision and Strategy - Health Information System. To promote digital data exchange and data availability, the Nuts Foundation was established in 2018. Within the foundation, software vendors work together so that software applications in healthcare can communicate with each other from source systems. Nuts believes in a decentralized infrastructure for data exchange, opting for open international standards in line with European developments.
Data availability is one of the core themes during Zorg & ict 2024. The largest health tech event in the Netherlands will be held from April 9 to 11 at Jaarbeurs in Utrecht.
