Wednesday, April 9, 2025
How healthy is Zuid-Holland, and what can we do with shared knowledge, experience, and targeted actions? Around 400 people got to work on seven health themes on April 8 in Delft at the conference ‘Healthy Society: Innovating and Sustainable Implementation – Action in the Delta’. Provincial Executive Mariëtte van Leeuwen of the Province of Zuid-Holland received the insights in the form of puzzle pieces.
It was the first joint conference of Medical Delta, Leiden-Delft-Erasmus Universities, and the Zuid-Hollandse Impact Alliantie of universities of applied sciences. The goal was to initiate an action agenda for a healthier Zuid-Holland. For the province, this is an important theme, as the residents of Zuid-Holland score below average in terms of health and above average when it comes to health disparities.
Deputy Van Leeuwen: "It’s important that we roll up our sleeves together to make Zuid-Holland a healthier province. As a province, we want to be the accelerating force—by, for example, sharing knowledge with municipalities."
Van Leeuwen emphasized that health is not a given theme for a province and that most of the expertise lies with universities, universities of applied sciences, hospitals, and municipalities. However, Zuid-Holland is investing in this area and is eager to make use of the knowledge available in the region. “Let’s make use of the knowledge that’s already on the shelf,” said the deputy.
Insights from the working sessions
In the Aula of TU Delft, participants in working sessions developed potential solutions around themes such as health disparities, urban environments, labor-saving technologies in healthcare, making hospitals more sustainable, funding healthcare innovations, biotechnology, and food.
Participants in the working sessions included healthcare professionals, developers, scientists, teachers, students, patient representatives, end users, entrepreneurs, and policymakers from various organizations and fields. The insights from the sessions—focused on which actions would yield the most impact—were then shared in a plenary session and presented to the deputy in the form of puzzle pieces.
A few insights that were mentioned:
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Health disparities in the region: Ensure that everyone has a seat at the table. Keep ownership with the residents. It is their life and their neighborhood.
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Urban design: Think in target groups such as age categories. Connect the physical and social domains.
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Labor-saving technology: Be mindful of the shift from secondary to primary healthcare. And how can we reduce the administrative burden?
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Sustainable healthcare: Human behavior is the biggest challenge. Also, textiles need to be cleaned and transported. Can this be done less and more centrally in the region?
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Funding healthcare innovations: ‘Social impact bonds’ is a promising new financing instrument where risk is shared between public and private sectors.
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Biotech Zuid-Holland: We can present ourselves as one strong region to the outside world and claim the position in the world that we have and deserve.
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Healthy food: Make it synonymous with sustainability and taste. Approach: legislation and lobbying, education, increase the percentage of plant-based and healthy offerings.
"Working within the good that already exists"
On behalf of the alliances, the Dean and chairs responded.
Joeri van den Steenhoven, chair of the Zuid-Holland Impact Alliance of Universities of Applied Sciences: "The presentations also show that boundaries are blurring. For example, it’s about co-creation between scientists and citizens. I would like to make a call to not create new structures for this, but to work within the many good things that already exist."
Frank Willem Jansen, chair of Medical Delta: "A new step has been taken here today by thinking not in terms of frameworks but in terms of strengths. Collaboration sounds easy, but it is often a challenge that we are eager to take on. We just have to do it. The working sessions show that this is possible. It’s a strong appeal to policymakers and existing initiatives to continue on the path we've started."
Next steps
What are the next steps following this work conference? In the coming months, the action agenda for a healthy Zuid-Holland will be further developed under the leadership of Medical Delta, with partners such as ZHIA, LDE, the Province of Zuid-Holland, and other stakeholders. The results will be presented on November 13, 2025, at the Gezond Verstand Festival of the Province of Zuid-Holland.
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Foto's: Frank de Roo
