New Health Deal on stimulating health through personal prevention via e-health
In 2020, ten percent of the Netherlands will use e-health for personal prevention.That is one of the concrete goals of the recently signed Health Deal 'Stimulating health through personal prevention via e-health.'The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy, the Ministry Health, Welfare and Sport and twelve other parties signed the Health Deal during the Health Valley Event on 15 March.The participants promise to undertake efforts to make e-health tools for personal prevention accessible to all Dutch people.
Promoting self-management and self-reliance
Since the rise of the Internet, digital pioneers have been working to provide information on personal health for the individual.The goal is to use this information to promote self-management and self-reliance, which will lead to healthy behaviour.This increases the quality of life and reduces healthcare costs.E-health instruments stimulate people to be busy with their health in a fun way.Personal prevention via e-health instruments are therefore a response to the 'gamification' trend, which encourages the Dutch to playfully change their behaviour.
Erik Gerritsen, Secretary General at the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport: “eHealth is a great approach for change in behaviour and a tool for prevention.”
Bottlenecks
There are also bottlenecks.First of all, the quality and reliability of health control is not yet in order, with one of the biggest concerns being data processing privacy.A second bottleneck is financing.Should the government, the health insurer, the employer or the consumer pay for this?A third bottleneck is access to use for people with limited digital skills.Further information about the bottlenecks of e-health can be found in the Health Deal text (pdf).
Participants
In addition to the national government, participants include health funds, health insurers, general practitioners and expert centres.Secretary General of the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport and Top Team member Erik Gerritsen signed the Health Deal on behalf of State Secretary fro Health, Welfare and Sport Paul Blokhuis.
Health Deals
With Health Deals, the government wants to help the broad application of effective healthcare innovations.The focus is on enabling specific care innovations to be more broadly applied than, for example, the local hospital, the healthcare institution or the region. Health Deals are agreements between the government and various other parties, including private parties.
Questions about Health Deals? Please contact the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO.nl) via the Health Deal website.
