From vision to real-world change: that was the central theme of day 2 of the ICT&health World Conference 2026 at the MECC in Maastricht. This day was devoted to the challenges facing the healthcare sector, but above all to the opportunities for tackling those challenges together with the help of technology, among other things.
In that context, the opening remarks by chairperson Sunny Groenveld were spot on: doing nothing is never the answer. Jan Anthonie Bruijn, Minister of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS), wholeheartedly agreed. His keynote speech set the tone for a day that revolved around courage, digital transformation and collaboration as the cornerstones of a resilient and future-proof healthcare system. Bruijn emphasised that healthcare is undergoing a period of radical change and that digitisation is crucial to improving the quality of care and reducing the workload.
According to Bruijn, this phase calls for collaboration, standardisation and acceleration, both nationally and at European level. He pointed out the importance of data availability, secure and standardised access to health information and the role of initiatives such as the European Health Data Space (EHDS). At the same time, he argued that technological progress alone is not enough: organisation, governance and human action must also move forward.
Patients are not an obstacle in this regard; according to Bruijn, they are open to further digitisation. ‘I believe we all want to move forward. So let's all take the necessary steps. And remember: nothing is impossible, because impossible things don't happen.’
Winner of the Health Impact Accelerator 2026
Health~Holland then announced the winner of the Health Impact Accelerator 2026: start-up Honeycomb. The winning platform supports people in finding appropriate mental health care and was selected from five start-ups that completed an intensive ten-week programme focused on scaling up. According to the organisation, the emphasis is on developing scalable solutions with a demonstrable impact on healthcare practice.
At the award ceremony, Minister of Health, Welfare and Sport Jan Anthonie Bruijn emphasised the importance of innovation and collaboration, even for initiatives that did not win prizes. For Honeycomb, the next step is primarily to attract funding to enable further growth. In doing so, the prize touches on a broader bottleneck in healthcare innovation: successful pilots require structural investments to become truly widely applicable.
Jack Kreindler: learning from extreme circumstances
In his keynote speech, Jack Kreindler (WellFounded Health) shared inspiring insights on redesigning healthcare using innovation, data and human connection. He explored how technology and empathy can work together to bring about meaningful change.
Kreindler argued that the future of healthcare lies in combining technology, data and human insight. As an “extreme environments researcher”, he investigates how people function under extreme conditions in order to draw lessons for healthier ageing. According to Kreindler, the availability of health data is growing explosively and falling costs are making continuous monitoring increasingly accessible. This offers opportunities to identify chronic conditions earlier and give people more control over their health.
At the same time, he warns that scalability, user-friendliness and context — such as physical limitations and social networks — are crucial for success. Technology alone is not enough; empathy, collaboration and learning from extreme situations are also necessary to truly transform healthcare. Do not underestimate the power of exponentially growing technology — but also do not underestimate what extremely difficult circumstances can teach us.
Helen Mertens: taking the lead
Dr Helen Mertens, Chair of the Executive Board of Maastricht University Medical Centre+ (MUMC+), concluded the morning plenary session with a story about how academic hospitals can take the lead in the sustainable transformation of healthcare — by connecting innovation, patient care and regional collaboration to build systems that actually work for people.
Mertens warned that digitisation in healthcare does not automatically work for everyone. Using a fictional patient as an example, she showed how digital barriers — such as language use, complexity and mandatory online steps — can actually lead to people avoiding healthcare.
According to Mertens, the risk of exclusion is growing, particularly for people with low literacy skills, cognitive impairments and citizens without stable internet access. She emphasised that equal digital solutions do not automatically lead to equal access to healthcare. Design, implementation and policy must take into account differences in skills and context. That responsibility does not lie with the patient, but with healthcare organisations, technology providers and policymakers collectively. Only inclusive digital healthcare can contribute to reducing health inequalities. ‘Offering everyone the same is not enough. It's about people getting what they need to actually participate.’
Afternoon keynotes: empowered patients
The afternoon presentations focused on empowering patients and strengthening digital trust. Two inspiring presentations placed the patient and digital trust at the heart of the transformation of healthcare.
Mohammad Al-Ubaydli, CEO of Patients Know Best, demonstrated how patient-centred platforms and data ownership are reshaping the relationship between citizens and healthcare providers — and creating healthcare systems that are better aligned with patients' needs.
According to him, the discussion about Personal Health Environments (PHEs) too often focuses on technology, while international experience shows that success or failure is mainly determined by governance. His core message: build governance, not software. Technology is necessary, but without structural funding, clear ownership and enforceable interoperability, PHEs will remain stuck in pilot projects and fragmentation.
Internationally, PGOs only create social value when they are treated as digital public infrastructure and go beyond mere access. It is not transparency, but activation that is key: citizens must be able to use, enrich and deploy their data for self-management. This requires federated architectures, mandatory standards and a clear division of roles between government (rules and supervision), market (innovation) and citizens (data ownership).
Liz Ashall Payne (ORCHA): trust and governance
Liz Ashall Payne, founder and CEO of ORCHA, argued that the success of digital healthcare is not determined by technology, but by trust and governance. Although millions of people worldwide use apps and other digital tools every day to monitor or improve their health, structural adoption is lagging behind. According to Ashall Payne, this is because users and healthcare professionals lack an overview. ORCHA's analyses show that only 20 per cent of the 350,000 health apps examined meet minimum requirements for safety and effectiveness. This abundance of unreliable applications undermines trust and hinders further upscaling.
ORCHA has therefore developed an internationally applicable five-step model, inspired by medication governance, with continuous checks on safety, clinical value and currency. This model includes pre-market assessment, training for healthcare professionals, clear positioning of digital tools, reimbursement and structural monitoring. According to Ashall Payne, in addition to regulation, particular attention needs to be paid to distribution and implementation, for example through interoperability with electronic patient records and automated deployment by healthcare professionals. Structural reimbursement is essential in this regard. ‘This is how you build a chain of trust,’ she says, in which healthcare professionals, patients and technology reinforce each other and digital healthcare can truly scale up.
Day 3: ICT&health Awards; cross-border collaboration
On the third and final day of the ICT&health World Conference, the ICT&health Awards will be presented for the second time. These awards, designed by an artist and very well received last year, highlight organisations and collaborations that have made a demonstrable contribution to the transformation of healthcare. Read more about the nominees for the five categories here:
The final day of the conference will further emphasise a strong European and international perspective on how digital transformation is reshaping healthcare across borders.
- Martin Dorazil, Deputy Head of the Digital Health and European Reference Networks Unit at the European Commission, will share Europe's strategic direction for building a connected, secure and patient-centred digital healthcare system.
- Myriam Fernández Martín, Head of Health Innovation EMEA at AWS, will then provide insight into how cloud technology, AI and data infrastructure are accelerating innovation and enabling smarter, more sustainable healthcare.
- The morning will conclude with a presentation by Eugene Waterval, who will reflect on leadership, transformation and the power of purposeful healthcare.
