First Line Software is a premier provider of software engineering, software enablement, and digital transformation services. Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the global staff of 400 technical experts serve clients across North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia.
There were more than 250 activities to participate in.
From January 21 – 26, 2019, the ECP | Platform for the Information Society and a number of main partners such as the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Economic Affairs, and ICT&Health organized the e-Health week for the third time. First Line Software is a global technology solutions company with a strong focus on Healthcare joined the international event to connect with care institutions, suppliers and municipalities, and meet new people who share our interests in increasing digital support in healthcare.
There were more than 250 activities to participate in. First Line attended some of them such as the Grand Opening ceremony at the Louwman Museum, the Hague Hospital’s open-door event, the Blockchain and Health conference, and several face-to-face meetings with healthcare professionals, patients, and healthcare innovators.
The opening on Monday already presented a lot of examples of e-health solutions, during the week many events. During the week, many activities showed how professionals and patients (can) interact with each other in daily practice. Good to see what is going on and – more importantly even – what does and does not work for the people involved. Does technology actually solve a problem? What is the added value of e-health applications and under what conditions do they really deliver on their promise. At many locations, people and organizations have presented how they made the first steps onto the road towards more efficient or effective healthcare service delivery. Things have been tried out. In some cases, experiences and findings in the past are used to take further steps based upon lessons learned.
Around the country, these steps are taken in tight collaboration with patients and caregivers next to the professionals. Involvement of these principle actors is essential when seeking to improve patient experience and quality and continuity of care. An example in case is the Mijn Zorg Log application for maternity care which was presented by the ZIN, Zorg Instituut Nederland. This application uses a rather experimental technology, blockchain, but does so in a very practical and readily usable manner – useful and practical for professionals and clients alike. This example is about supporting and smoothening the administrative process – eliminating a lot of needless checks, controls, and approvals. In the discussion, questions were asked and answered about whether it would be possible or desirable to also support health services and healthcare interventions themselves. Questions that would not have been possible, lessons that we would not have been able to learn, without this first blockchain pilot application.
e-Health offers many benefits. Digital support in healthcare could save time. People can easily schedule an appointment with their care provider online. And if an online consultation is possible (via video calling) they do not have to leave home.
Through a personal digital health environment, people get more insight into their health. If they wish, they can share this data with a care provider. Then they do not have to tell their entire medical history again. This allows the healthcare provider to work in a more focused way, to give the right treatment faster, and to prevent mistakes. Patients gain more control over their own health and can decide faster and better on the quality of care.
This year First Line Software took the next step for making e-health applicable to everyone by demonstrating opportunities, creating opportunities, and making connections for joint action not only during the e-Health week in the Netherlands. Not only we are actively using and implementing machine learning and artificial intelligence to solve critical challenges in Healthcare IT. First Line Software also has recently joined the International ICanFunction (mICF) Partnership – an international consortium focused on better use of the ICF – International Classification of Functioning. With the state-of-the-art ICanFunction (mICF) mobile health (mHealth) solutions of this consortium, applications, and platforms for personalized health and social care will become smarter, more flexible, and provide better integration with the outcome- and added-value driven healthcare practices around the world.