01 april 2022 • Deventer • 2 minute read
From 20 to 24 February, Topicus participated in the public-private mission PIB WeCareColombia. During this week, we visited Bogotá and Cali, two progressive cities in Colombia in the field of healthcare and health. The mission was organised by Rijksdienst voor Ondernemend Nederland (RVO), Task Force Healthcare, the Holland House Colombia (Dutch - Colombian Chamber of Commerce) in cooperation with the Dutch embassy in Colombia.
Imagine a Colombia with less women dying from cervical cancer. Think of Colombia with a healthier population, less inequalities, at lower costs. Organized population screening programs can help with this. Programs based on smart and intelligent governance. For screening, we need specialized personnel and good equipment. Also, we need an ICT platform that runs these screening programs, that supports the primary processes. A platform that helps you to monitor and evaluate the quality and effectiveness of your program, a platform that puts you in control.
That’s why we built PreventUs, our multi-screening platform – developed especially for early diagnoses of communicable and non-communicable diseases. In The Netherlands we service the screening programs for colon cancer, breast cancer and cervical cancer. We implemented PreventUs for TB and Covid-19, for example servicing 400.000 tests appointments and results per day for nearly 18 million people.
Our goal is to have 100 million people screened by 2030 using PreventUs to detect or prevent diseases earlier, to achieve solid health economics and to contribute to the quality of life of people around the world. But let us start with Colombia…
The above was part of our pitch during the ‘PIB We care Colombia mission’ in February 2022 to Bogota and Cali, two cities in Colombia. PIB stands for Partners for International Business and is a collaboration between several Dutch companies. Together, we will work for the next 3 years to develop a stronger and more integrated care system in Colombia, based on our joint knowledge and experience, with our products and services. Key issues are the development of public health and specifically screening and the digitalisation of care. The Colombian healthcare system is very similar to the Dutch one, but also has its differences. And the country's structure, with many remote areas, is also an important factor. How do we make healthcare accessible and keep it affordable, together? Knowing that Colombia's GDP is about 10% of that of Western Europe. And knowing that developing and implementing population screening is still in its infancy and is a bit different from screening as many people as possible. In short: mission work. Very good also, that the Dutch ambassador and deputy ambassador participated directly and actively in the mission.
During this mission, we talked to many parties who matter in the Colombian healthcare system, for example hospitals and their oncologists and medical directors, hospital groups looking for knowledge and support for screening programmes, health insurers who want to start thinking more and more long term, the Ministry of Health that wants to take control, cancer institutes that want to collect data for epidemiological research, with universities, but also with local companies that want to cooperate. We explained, together with our partner Erasmus MC, for example, what a population study is and how to calculate its positive health effects and make better decisions based on that. And with other PIB partners, such as Resonandina - supplier of mobile units with research equipment, we explained how to set up a hybrid screening programme and also reach the remote areas. All this excellently organised by Task Force Healthcare and Holland House Colombia, in the form of round table discussions, match-making and visits to the larger modern hospitals.
Back in the Netherlands, we will use the warm contacts that have been made with interesting parties to arrive at suitable follow-up steps, such as making appointments with local partners, drawing up business cases, technical assessments, etc. We are working with the other PIB partners on this and may visit Colombia again this year to start working on a number of concrete projects.
Please contact Christiaan Mast
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