Conference Matters 144

INTERVIEW

'Digital care requires European collaboration'

patients, which increases the quality of care and ensures more job satisfaction among professionals. Bianca Rouwenhorst, Director of Information Policy and Chief Information Officer at the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, outlines this problem in her keynote address at the ICT&health World Conference 2025 in Maas tricht. As a fervent advocate of e-health, she believes data exchange is the way to improve healthcare processes. “Around the world, we’re dealing with a growing and aging population, each country in its own way. It results in increasingly complex care needs, with more people suffering from more than one chronic disease,” she says on stage at the MECC Maastricht. “At the same time, we have fewer dedicated and well-trained healthcare professionals to provide this care.

“Without cooperation, an unprecedented healthcare crisis threatens,” stresses Bianca Rouwenhorst. She believes data exchange is the key to keeping healthcare accessible, affordable, and humane. “We must take respon sibility because we can only make a difference together,” she says. The healthcare sector is facing major challenges due to the ageing population and the growing staff shortage. The demand for care is incre asing, while the number of available healthcare professionals is lagging behind. To keep proper healthcare accessible and affordable, the poli cy’s main focus is on improving data exchange and data availability. Less administration lets healthcare workers spend more time with their By Jildau Cuperus | Photo Lex van Lieshout Fotografie

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