Internationalisation

The Rotterdam Eye Hospital beyond borders

The Rotterdam Eye Hospital (REH) and the Eye Care Network (ECN, an initiative of the Rotterdam Eye Hospital) developed a mobile eye care concept: the EYEbus. It is a convenient tool to create access to a network of ophthalmic professionals around the client and has been successfully implemented in the Netherlands. The EYEbus is a scientifically proven concept, with more than 5 years of experience.

The success of international knowledge exchange & cross-over innovation

In addition to the success in the Netherlands, the REH and ECN are exploring the possibilities to introduce the EYEbus network concept in other countries. The REH and ECN started a feasibility study in China from February 2014 up to May 2015 together with their Chinese partner Tianjin Medical University Eye Hospital (TMUEH). The aim of the study is to determine whether it is feasible and valuable to implement the EYEbus network concept in China. Preliminary conclusions indicate that there is an urgent and increasing demand for innovative and professional eye care in this country.

Internationalisation of the EYEbus concept not only includes the export of the innovation. It is all about the willingness to learn from other countries and the exchange of information. A good example is the collaboration between the REH and Singapore National Eye Centre (SNEC) since 1997.

They initiated the World Association of Eye Hospitals (WAEH), which is the global association of eye centres of excellence. Recently, the REH and SNEC won the Winsemius Award, an award assigned to collaborative organisations that resulted in the creation and implementation of innovative concepts.

Both examples show that the power of internationalisation lies within the exchange of information and the willingness to learn from each other. René Baljon, director of the ECN:

“Our international work is a matter of give and take. Especially with a technologically high demanding discipline such as eye care, our main focus is knowledge sharing.”

Holland Medical Guide 2015-2016

HMG
The Holland Medical Guide (HMG) is a collaboration of the top sector Life Sciences & Health – Health~Holland and the Task Force Health Care. Registration in the HMG offers your organisation a unique chance to present yourself globally. The HMG contains organisation profiles that are focused on the Dutch LSH sector. The HMG edition of 2014 was a great success. In total 2.000 hardcopies were distributed and the online version had 12.000 views. You can read or download the previous edition via this link.

Global reach
The HMG is distributed among more than 5.000 business relations, partners and agencies over the world. It reaches the relevant Dutch embassies, consulates and Netherlands Business Support Offices (NBSO). It will be spread among hospitals, investors, distributors and government officials in the Netherlands ánd abroad. Moreover, the HMG will be used during healthcare missions, visits, international fairs and healthcare events in the Netherlands.

Registration
If you are interested in a placement in the HMG 2015-2016 there are different possibilities: an organisation profile (€150,- excl. VAT), a half page advertisement (€725,- excl. VAT) or a full page advertisement (€1.150,- excl. VAT). Due to a straight forward ‘keyword register’ and ‘search matrix’ your organisation will be easy to find.

Via this link you can find the registration form (in Dutch), which can be send to epe@tfhc.nl. After registration you will receive a confirmation e-mail with information on the submission procedure.

Deadline for registration is 14 May 2015.

For more specific information or questions please contact Narindra Bhiekhemsing via epe@tfhc.nl or via +31 79 353 14 88.

Human Capital Agenda

The Life Sciences & Health sector is an attractive domain for students and professionals. For succesful innovation, human capital is essential. With respect to succesfull innovation, not only the needs and wishes of innovators, scientists' and developers are to be taken into account, but all the more so those of the end-users.

The HCA of the top sector LSH focusses on supporting and developing the skills and competences that are necessary for everyone (to be) occupied in this sector. Not only for the ones who innovate and scientifically validate, but also for those who will put these validated innovations into practice.

The HCA will be published soon on the Health-Holland website,

Turkish Life Sciences & Health sector

The report shows that Turkey has gained substantial advancements in e-health applications and is rapidly developing in the fields of stem cell biology, genomics and oncology. Challenges remain in the fields of valorization of research results, for example in the fields of biomaterials and biomedical engineering. Regarding the development of generic medicines and biosimilars, the pharmaceutical sector is also interesting, but there is not yet a strong focus on the development of new medicines. This is also the case for the development of medical devices.

You can find the report here. Furthermore, the Netherlands Enterprise Agency plans to give follow up to it by means of organizing a seminar on opportunities for Dutch-Turkish collaboration in the field of e-health & preventive medicine.

This seminar will be organized in case of sufficient interest from the Dutch side. The following link contains a short questionnaire via which you can indicate whether you would be interested in joining such a seminar:

You can find the questionnaire here.

The seminar in itself could be followed up by a Technology Matchmaking Mission to Turkey, where we can discuss Horizon 2020 and Eurostars cooperation with Turkish partners.

If you have any questions about the report, you can direct your questions to the Advisor for Innovation, Science & Technology of the Dutch Embassy in Ankara, Mr. Rory Nuijens, via ankara@ianetwerk.nl.