Anticipating 2024: Creating even more impact together

"Do join us!" sang the gospel choir at the well-attended Medical Delta Conference on November 14th. We presented our new mission, vision, and strategy, unveiling plans to establish transdisciplinary 'societies' (you can view them here). This call marks the beginning of what we internally refer to as 'Medical Delta 3.0': the prelude to a new multi-year programming phase.

Healthcare is faced with numerous 'wicked problems' across various domains, issues that interconnect, transcend domains, and thus lack a single solution. Whether it's health disparities, staffing shortages, funding for innovations, double aging, or hurdles for implementation—they are intricately intertwined. Solving them structurally proves challenging. During the Medical Delta Conference, we showcased a video in which three healthcare professionals share how these challenges manifest in their daily practice (watch it here).

How can we address this? Collaborative efforts from various perspectives, diverse disciplines, and from both (applied) science and practice are required to move from fundamental research to application in daily practice.

Transdisciplinary Collaboration

The scientific programs and living labs from 'Medical Delta 2.0' demonstrate that interdisciplinary collaboration yields new insights, perspectives, and solutions. The biggest challenge now lies in embedding and implementing these new insights and innovations in healthcare practice. The new programming will provide more space for that. We are transitioning from an 'interdisciplinary collaboration' to a 'transdisciplinary collaboration.'

We are also placing different thematic emphases. What works well will be maintained. Building on the scientific foundation of Medical Delta, we will continue to drive the development and research of so-called "key enabling technologies" for healthcare.

At the same time, we want to emphasize themes that are important now and in the coming years: prevention and health, care in one's living environment, and sustainably developing healthcare, with a more explicit positioning of universities of applied sciences. Additionally, we'll focus on the transformation of healthcare itself, as the Medical Delta approach is excellently suited for it.

Four 'Societies'

From four 'societies,' we aim to promote transdisciplinary collaboration. We chose the term 'societies' because they represent dynamic collaborations among all partners in the ecosystem. We leverage existing proven collaborations and seek new perspectives and partners, including healthcare organizations, end-users (health professionals and patients), businesses, and local and regional governments. We also aim to explore how we can involve vocational education institutions (mbo's).

The four societies are:

• Healthcare
• Prevention, Health & Vitality
• Transformation
• Greener Healthcare

Within these four societies, strong consortia will form in the coming months.

In November, a working session took place with over thirty lecturers from four South Holland universities of applied sciences. The first outlines of new living labs became visible.

For the further development of the programs within the societies, consortia must form, with substantial contributions from knowledge institutions and healthcare practice, jointly submitting program proposals.

Will You Join Us?

Starting in late January/early February, we will host the first meetings for interested parties. If you have good ideas for newly forming transdisciplinary research lines within one of the societies, we warmly invite you to join us in brainstorming.

You can already sign up on this page.

We look forward to 2024 with much curiosity and anticipation, a year in which Medical Delta, together with you all, takes up the challenge to create even more impact in healthcare and health.

For now, we wish you wonderful holidays!

On behalf of the team and board of Medical Delta,

Drs. David de Glint, Managing Director
Prof. Dr. Frank Willem Jansen, Chairman