University of Twente

Enschede, The Netherlands

The University of Twente offers research and degree programs in the social and behavioral sciences and engineering. I was invited to talk about Telehealth to a group of bachelor and master students. The themes of the symposiums were management and organization, economics in healthcare, and health technology. The seminar was organized by the student association “Sirius”.

THE MASTER STUDENTS INTERESTED IN NEW WAYS OF HEALTHCARE DELIVERY

The first speaker, Assistant Professor Lotte Steuten, welcomed the students and gave general information about the symposium and the presenters. Her research centers on developing HTA-methods that effectively assess the value of medical technology at each stage of the development process, i.e., from pre-concept to mature product. Her area of expertise is in health services research and health technology assessment, particularly health economics and (Bayesian) decision-analytic modeling. Clinical areas of interest include cancer, diabetes mellitus, respiratory and cardiovascular disease.

After this introduction, the first speaker took the floor. Anja Jonkers works for the Inspection of Healthcare in the Netherlands. She spoke about the reasons for the existence of inspection of healthcare institutions and how the inspection works. In addition, she gave information about what the inspectors pay attention to when they walk into a healthcare institution and how they handle problems in case they find any.

The next speaker worked for the Cancer Centre of the Netherlands. He spoke about the organization and the problems new technologies can cause. Then, Ben Arnst spoke about the electronic patient dossier, the benefits, and the issues of this technology. Next, I gave a presentation about the innovation in Telehealth that will revolutionize healthcare delivery. Finally, I presented Philips Telehealth solutions and Philips’ approach to tackling chronic diseases.

THE ORGANIZING COMMITTEE OF THE SYMPOSIUM

The audience consisted mainly of health sciences students. These students were in the process of learning about health care in the Netherlands. The symposium helped the students to understand how the theory works in actual practice. In addition, giving a lecture and spurring conversations with future healthcare leaders in the Netherlands was a thoroughly pleasant experience.