Intendant Health Data Infrastructure in place

A national health data infrastructure makes data accessible for faster and better medical research. Aided by this infrastructure, Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions allow us to improve patient care, public health and disease prevention, and create economic impact. Valuable use of medical data for a healthy future.

Within the Amsterdam metropolitan region, Amsterdam Economic Board has initiated Health Data Infrastructure (GDI) with a consortium of 7 partners: Amsterdam UMC, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, OLVG, Philips, UvA, the VU and the Municipality of Amsterdam (with the action program Smart Health Amsterdam), in collaboration with Health RI, NLAIC and AI Technology for People. In the past year, we worked on setting up the collaboration and elaborating it in a joint plan for implementation.

Experienced manager

Lies van Gennip has over twenty years of experience as a director and administrator in healthcare. After studying and being promoted (cum laude) as a biologist, she has worked in various positions in and on innovation in healthcare. In October 2019, Van Gennip was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the international medical terminology association Snomed International. Since 2008, she has also been active as a healthcare supervisor, in governance, quality and innovation portfolios. In recent years she has worked on initiatives in which specific medical specialist data is reused for research, as director of AI at PALGA and as an intendant of icudata.nl.

Unparalleled wealth of data

Van Gennip says about the Health Data Infrastructure: “I think the great and unique thing about this initiative is that a broad consortium of healthcare providers, knowledge institutions, Philips, the Municipality of Amsterdam and the Amsterdam Economic Board are joining forces to bundle data from various professionals and sources for reuse. The intended GDI can thus unlock an unparalleled wealth of data.”

Positive impact on health and economy

The potential of making sensible use of data is enormous. In this way hospital admissions and overtreatment can be prevented, treatments can be personalised and diagnoses can be made much earlier. In addition, the use of data can even help in the prevention of diseases of affluence. In addition to a significant positive impact on healthcare and health, a regional health data infrastructure adds economic value. For the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area, the estimate is around €195 to 315 million euros per year, due to more effective prevention, better diagnoses and treatments.

Invitation to collaboration

Gerty Holla, Lead Health of the Amsterdam Economic Board: “The initiative started in Amsterdam in collaboration with AI Technology for People, NLAIC and Health RI. Ultimately, it aims to contribute to and be part of a connected, national integrated health data infrastructure. To this end, we are already in contact with several other initiatives in the Netherlands in this area. We are happy to expand this further to share and connect ideas. That is why I would like to call on other parties working on similar initiatives to join forces and get in touch with us.”