‘Health is key to inclusive prosperity’

Healthcare is opening doors to innovation and improvements with a positive impact on citizens. Faster diagnostics and new drugs not only provide better care but also lower costs, keeping good care affordable.

Healthcare innovations also fuel the economy. Innovative companies bring new products to market, creating jobs and capital.

What makes the subject of Health so appealing to you?

Gerty Holla

“It is precisely the combination of innovation and impact that makes Health such a great field,” says Gerty Holla. As a Coalition Manager at the Amsterdam Economic Board, she works towards a Healthy region, with a focus on Life Sciences & Health.

“Scientists produce fascinating health research that leads to applicable results to improve everyone’s health. For example, through developments in biotechnology and now using data and AI.”

New digital technologies offer many application possibilities. And opportunities to make healthcare more efficient, personalised and affordable. Attention to privacy and humanity are very important here. For example, in the use of health data. And the use of sensors and telemetry, which make the deployment of care staff more efficient, in order to provide the same good care with fewer people in these times of staff shortages.

“Developing the available technology into a good, safe application is already quite a challenge,” says Gerty. “The next important step, is getting the product funded and brought to market.”

Funding innovations

Before Gerty started with the Amsterdam Economic Board three years ago, she worked for investment funds. She financed innovative companies in the field of Life Sciences & Health (LSH).

“In my current job, I approach the work on a Healthy region more broadly. Looking not only at the need for financing, but also at the need for transitions. And at new public-private partnerships that need to be created for this.

“To me, the Amsterdam Economic Board feels like a sanctuary, where you can really work on ideas in an innovative and experimental way to make the region greener, smarter and healthier. Together with directors from the region, who contribute all the knowledge and expertise of their organisations. That combination of space and power is unique.”

What are the main challenges for Health in this region?

“In the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area there is a lot of knowledge and prosperity. But there are also groups and areas that are lagging behind, that do not benefit from the increased prosperity. This leads to large health disparities between citizens in certain neighborhoods. Health innovations offer a lot of potential, which can and should be better utilized – for a better distributed, inclusive prosperity.”

Read more about this in the Elsevier report Understanding Amsterdam’s competitive advantage.

“In addition, we can better harness the potential of health data and help innovative companies start and grow. And more focus is needed on prevention to keep citizens healthy longer. These latter challenges also apply to the rest of the Netherlands – and beyond.”

How has the Amsterdam Economic Board improved on regional health?

“Strengthening the regional Life Sciences Health ecosystem and better utilisation of health data. That is what we have been working on in the past few years in particular. As a neutral player, we have formed coalitions with knowledge institutions and companies through initiatives such as Smart Health Amsterdam and Health Data Space Amsterdam (see text boxes). These collaborations serve the common interest, which transcends the individual goals of individual organisations,” says Gerty.

What results are you most proud of yourself?

“I am very proud of the establishment of Health Data Space Amsterdam, in which three healthcare institutions jointly provide a single point of contact for safe reuse of health data. This has taken a long time, with a lot of effort on the shop floor, and also from the administrators, to organise this despite all the barriers.”

“The results of Smart Health Amsterdam are also impressive. From this initiative have come collaborations: Zorg2040, the Life Sciences Cafés and the Medical Data + Pizza meetups. For the regional network, these are indispensable sanctuaries to discuss new challenging themes. Such as digital inclusion in healthcare, the application and acceptance of AI in clinical decisions and the process of acquisition of startups by large industry partners.”

What next steps are you looking forward to now?

“The subject of Prevention has been much discussed within the LSH sector for some time. The topic contains great barriers when we’re working towards real systemic change. Preventing disease is complex and requires major players from various sectors to make a joint decision in the interest of the entire community. This makes pre-eminently an issue in which Amsterdam Economic Board wants to involve its network. We launched Prevention in 2023 and a number of sub-coalitions are already actively working on it.”

“Together with our partner ROM InWest, Amsterdam Economic Board launched the MKB InnovatieBooster LSH in 2023. In this we are pulling together for the ecosystem around financing and scaling up life sciences startups and scaleups. So that new technology can be developed and marketed faster. There are now more than ten regional partner organisations associated with the annual LSH Capital Match event. Here we bring investors and young companies together in speed dating sessions.”