Sustainable funding: 'innovation, who foots the bill?

Implementing proven effective innovations in healthcare practice is no easy feat. During a ZorgTech meeting preceding the Medical Delta Conference, a roundtable discussion was held under the title 'Innovation, who foots the bill?' concerning the sustainable funding of healthcare innovations.

Floor Waardenburg (Cue2Walk International), Douwe Jippes (Healthy.Capital), Thijs Schaap (Noaber), Gertjan van Rossum (IFOZ – Innovatiefonds Ouderenzorg), Martijn Hessels (Crefact), and Erwin Tak (Municipality of The Hague) engaged in a conversation about this.

Elles de Bruin, the session's moderator, opened the discussion with a question about the role of innovation and the future of healthcare. The panel agreed that innovation is crucial for making work processes more efficient while ensuring the quality of healthcare. According to the participants, we are on the verge of a transformation where embracing innovation and recognizing its importance is a challenge within healthcare. This is also evident in the podcast series 'The Future is Grey' (NL) by Omroep Max, where Elles de Bruin and Astrid Cornelisse discuss the challenges of aging in the Netherlands and the importance of proven innovation.

Embracing innovation

"It shouldn't be optional," emphasized Gertjan van Rossum. "It's important to embrace the right innovations that have proven to work in practice and increase the effectiveness of healthcare." He pointed out that healthcare providers can return to the work they were trained for if they embrace innovations that contribute to time savings. "That is very valuable."

Trust in technology also plays a crucial role. Involving healthcare staff in the early stages, experimenting, and learning are essential. An example of Stox's medical socks illustrates this. Although the innovation has proven to be effective, healthcare providers often stick to their traditional methods. Bram Onneweer from Rijndam Revalidatie confirmed the behavior of the healthcare staff and emphasized that you should make innovation work for you. This facilitates the same work and ensures more time for other healthcare tasks.

Who bears the cost?

Who pays the price for an innovation? The crucial question about demonstrating innovative effectiveness in the long term sheds a sharp light on the challenges of sustainable funding. The example of Cue2Walk, which reduces the fall risk of Parkinson's patients, illustrates the dilemma.

In the Netherlands, it is not uncommon for both users and healthcare institutions not to pay for such aids. This raises the question of whether health insurers could play a larger role in this. Financing by health insurers is often a complex issue. As a result, patients end up paying for costs themselves longer than necessary. While many patients are willing to bear these costs, it is simply not feasible for some.

Marcel Wilschut from the Albert Schweitzer Hospital pointed out the costs of innovations and emphasized that they are often integrated into practice without a clear financing model. "The costs of healthcare innovations and their sustainable funding remain a complex issue, with the challenge lying in finding a balance between the value of an innovation and the need to maintain healthcare quality."

Perseverance

Market entry is a complex process for a startup in health technology. This requires a lot of perseverance. There are many steps to go through, such as clinical validation, certification, and efficiency. Despite the challenges, giving up is often not an option for the determined entrepreneur; it is a puzzle where you need to figure out who or what you need at which stage. Floor Waardenburg of Cue2Walk also affirms this. When Elles de Bruin asked if he ever thought about quitting, he responded resolutely, "No, never."

Integrated approach

More early-stage financing could make a difference, said Douwe Jippes of Healthy.Capital, "but in the Netherlands, we often lack a clear vision of healthcare. This is in contrast to Germany, where there is a clear vision of Digital Health, and the path for healthcare innovation startups is well laid out. An integrated approach between different entities is essential for promoting technology in healthcare and achieving progress."

Sustainably financing innovation in healthcare remains a challenging process that requires perseverance and creativity from entrepreneurs, as can be concluded from the conversations. In this complex landscape, the focus should shift from experimentation to concrete action. Proven effectiveness should no longer be a casual concept but rather an incentive to truly get things moving. With this mindset, all stakeholders, from entrepreneurs to the government, can collectively work towards a future-proof healthcare system and its accompanying sustainable financing. However, the crucial question remains who ultimately foots the bill for innovation.

The ZorgTech innovation program is made possible by the province of South Holland, TNO, Metropolitan Region Rotterdam The Hague (MRDH), InnovationQuarter, and Medical Delta; the execution is handled by InnovationQuarter, TNO, and Medical Delta.