Health Cloud Initiative makes room for care with smart IT

Marc Prette photo for Health Hub collaboration

Bringing like-minded IT companies together to increase innovative clout to accelerate the move to digital healthcare. That's the goal Health Cloud Initiative (HCI) has in mind. To boost this collaborative approach, HCI has partnered with Dutch Health Hub. Against the backdrop of health tech event Zorg & ICT, the two parties clinched the partnership on June 13.

HCI's underlying goal is to free up healthcare professionals as much as possible for their actual work. "In the Netherlands, healthcare professionals spend an average of 30 percent of their time on administration, while the pressure on healthcare is increasing," says initiator and managing director Eric de Boer.

Unified software

"Everyone is feeling the pressure of constantly changing laws and regulations. Within Health Cloud Initiative, the main objective is to uncomplicate care through unified software while minimizing administrative burdens. In this way, we can help reduce waiting lists in healthcare and enable healthcare providers to give more attention to patient treatment. In doing so, we are making healthcare in the Netherlands better."

The companies operating under the HCI banner currently serve more than 20,000 healthcare providers, primarily in the paramedical and mental health fields. De Boer expects to grow to 40,000 healthcare providers within the foreseeable future. In addition, HCI is expanding activities into adjacent healthcare fields, such as prevention and e-Health. HCI is also seeking cooperation with PBM vendors.

Cloud-based solutions

As the name suggests, HCI opts for cloud-based solutions. According to De Boer, the cloud not only offers scale and agility, but actually contributes to better data exchange. "Because data is no longer stored locally, but in the cloud, you can basically make data instantly available," De Boer said. "By making that data available again in a patient portal or PBM, you involve the patient in his treatment and also stimulate therapy compliance."