The transformation of healthcare is a hotly debated (and necessary) topic. It is often about more money, more staff or smarter technologies. But according to Jet Bussemaker, the presenter of the National Care Innovation Award at Care & ict 2026, the task lies elsewhere: a different way of thinking about care and innovation.
"There are numerous reasons why we need to transform. We talk a lot about scarcity of people and that calls for action," says Jet Bussemaker, since 2019 president of the Council for Public Health & Society (RVS), which advises the government on care for now and in the future.
"Much more importantly, we need to start thinking differently about healthcare. By now we are no longer talking about care and illness, but about health and behavior. We now need to move to the next step: talk about people and society."
Healthier through social contact
This week the RVS published theadvice Healthy Connected out on how curative care can take advantage of opportunities to strengthen social relationships. After all, healthy relationships increase the likelihood of a long and healthy life. "The highly individualized healthcare system currently offers too little room for this," according to the RVS. The question is: How can people help each other and benefit themselves?
Transformation of healthcare has three main obstacles, according to Bussemaker.
1. Cultural obstacle
"We see ourselves primarily as individual healthcare consumers. Care is something you are entitled to because you pay premiums." That approach, she says, is at odds with the collective thinking needed to improve health permanently.
2. Financial obstacle
In addition, the method of financing is a major obstacle. "The whole health insurance law is set up on individual claims. If you have something together often doesn't fit into a package. That then always has to go through workarounds."
3. Organizational obstacle
Furthermore, guidelines and protocols offer little room for change. "We need to create much more room for innovation. I see an awful lot of great examples of people doing things differently, but they are now rowing against the current."
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Successful upscaling in the right context
No matter how smart and technical an innovations are, Bussemaker still often sees that they don't get off the ground. "Innovation is often about what is technically possible, but that should not be an end in itself." We need to think from the healthcare perspective: values-driven and not technical or economic. What does an innovation mean for people? "Technical innovation must always go hand in hand with social innovation."
In addition, context is a determining factor in wanting to scale up successfully. "An innovation that works in Amsterdam or The Hague will not automatically work in northeastern Groningen or Zeeland, and what suits a medical specialist may not suit a nurse in elderly care at all."
Still, innovations are often scaled up by simply making one successful application bigger. "Then you extend that one proven context to a larger field to gain momentum. That leads not to acceleration, but to slowing down innovation," Bussemaker states.
The need for co-creation
To find the right connection to practice, co-creation is essential. "The user of the innovation should not be involved only at the end," stresses Bussemaker. "Don't develop something in your own little room and then take it to the market. Do it together with the healthcare professional for whom you are making it, from the very beginning."
An advantage of co-creation is that innovations are also more easily adopted by colleagues. "They can convince others to work with it. It doesn't come 'from outside,' it really belongs to them. Shared ownership ultimately leads to social impact."
Also read:J58 and Freequency win National Care Innovation Award
Keep adding value
It's important for start-up healthcare entrepreneurs to realize that the work of a healthcare innovator doesn't stop once a product or service is finished. Bussemaker: "Keep following what an innovation does to the people who work with it. Don't think you're done once it's in the market, but keep asking yourself what value you add to healthcare and the transformation of healthcare."
Responsibility of change
The key question: who is responsible for driving the transformation of healthcare? Bussemaker: "It lies with many parties, but it starts with everyone who works in healthcare. What can you as a healthcare professional do? We are used to saying: the inspection, the health insurer or the minister won't let us do that. But more is often possible than we think."
Bussemaker says the responsibility also lies with health insurers, policy makers and bodies such as the Care Institute that sets guidelines and quality frameworks. "Make sure you create space in that to do things differently," she says.
Change from the bottom up
Real change must come from the bottom up, from healthcare professionals, healthcare organizations, healthcare providers and healthcare administrators, according to Bussemaker. "That's where a countermovement must arise: 'we are transforming and this is what we are running into.' Then you look for solutions together. And that's where policy should focus."
That's what she says it's really about in the end: "Flipping the healthcare system. Turn it all around. Don't think from a policy or medical perspective, but from people who are sick or vulnerable. What do side needed, and what does it take to do that? That's the big task for the next few years."
Jet Bussemaker will present the National Care Innovation Award 2026 on April 15 on the mainstage of Care & ict. This award is byCareinnovation.nl created with the goal of accelerating technological innovations in healthcare and well-being. The finalists have a chance to win the audience prize worth €5,000 and the jury prize worth €10,000. Read who the five professional judges are in this article.
