TEDxMaastrichts mission is to help the world understand that change in healthcare is imminent. We aim to fire up and grow a movement of people who believe the next decennium should be the era of the rising of self-empowered patients. Embracing the patient, their family and informal care into the healthcare team.

But why!
More and more information is exchanged daily. Through weblogs, online communities, Twitter, podcasts, vodcasts, RSS-feeds, wikis and LinkedIn. Not just information is exchanged, but experiences, networks and tools are available to everyone. These new possibilities of interaction and information, bring a new level of understanding and communication in healthcare. This is being defined as “Health 2.0“, which in the Netherlands has taken the translation Zorg 2.0 (Health=Zorg). Health 2.0 goes beyond the role of the internet but also includes topics such as E-Health.

Zorg 2.0 gives us the opportunity to compliment to the specific needs and requirements of patients, through the internet. Not in transmitting the message though yet another channel, but in creating interaction between patients and healthcare professionals. This interaction fuels a process in which both the healthcare professional and the patient come up with a diagnostic plan, rehabilitation path and a strategy for possible care needed thereafter. Patients will be taking more responsibility for their own healthcare and that of their own family. The provider of healthcare can reap their rewards with the high patient compliance and their collaboratively made healthcare plans. This is called Participatory Healthcare.

But the possibilities are even greater than this. What does the patient need? Is it not our collective goal to prevent illness and the progression of symptoms in stead of ‘placing a bandage’? We need to take a step back to see how we could reshape this process. Doing this from point blank and naturally together with the patient, collaboratively visioning the wished outcome and thereby making a process that would compliment those very needs; so by ‘service design’ principles so to speak. This is our mission.

Quoting the founder and curator of TEDxMaastricht Lucien Engelen: “Real Participatory Healthcare starts with embracing the patient in to your team!”.

Who’s behind this?

Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre is the driver of this initiative. This is in direct relation to their current focus in healthcare: creating a system in which the patient becomes a part of the team that collaboratively works towards to the improvement of their own health. They call this focus REshape, in their ambition to REshape health care to cope with the vast challenges that will come to pass due to an increase in patient participation, labour changes and cost explosion. For this purpose, the Radboud REshape & Innovation Center is initiated.

The improvement of healthcare is universal. That’s why the Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Center, in line with their REshape vision, is reaching out beyond the hospital walls. Beyond the country borders . To create a wider society of people and institutions with the same interest and aspirations. TEDxMaastricht is one of these initiatives.