Healthcare and defence face similar challenges: how do you provide high-quality care when time, staff, resources and accessibility are limited? “Technology can be the connecting factor,” says Maikel Derksen, Sales Director Healthcare at INTER. “If a medical specialist cannot physically reach the patient, we need to make sure that their medical expertise can.”<blockquote> If hospitals are connected with defence, we can provide the best possible medical care during crises. &nbsp;</blockquote>Derksen has worked at INTER for 28 years and, in his role, is involved with clients and projects across several European countries. INTER develops and implements audiovisual and technological solutions for both defence and healthcare.“In both sectors, it is about supporting critical processes. In defence, for example, this happens in control rooms, where information from different sources is brought together. In healthcare, we support professionals in operating rooms and multidisciplinary consultation rooms, as well as with diagnostic monitors. In both defence and healthcare, we bring crucial information together in real time, enabling either military personnel or an operating room team to access all the information they need to take the right action immediately.” To support these processes, INTER provides not only audiovisual system integration, but also ORflow, its proprietary software solution for process support.<h2>From crossover to resilient healthcare</h2>Earlier this year, representatives from healthcare, defence and other sectors came together at a roundtable organised by Oost NL and the Province of Gelderland at the provincial government building in Arnhem. They discussed a range of cases with the aim of identifying opportunities for new innovations. According to Derksen, who participated in the roundtable, the key to success is not developing yet another new technology, but connecting existing knowledge, systems and infrastructure. “If we can ensure that the right information reaches the right person at the right time, we can use the capacity available to us much more effectively. Within a hospital, between hospitals and, ultimately, between civilian healthcare and defence.”<blockquote>We can make smarter use of our medical capacity.</blockquote><h2>From separate departments to one hospital control centre</h2>According to Derksen, healthcare can already make significant gains by bringing together information that is currently spread across different hospital departments and making it accessible in one place: a hospital control centre. “Think of available beds, operating rooms, staff, diagnostics, logistics, security and other supporting processes. This creates a real-time overview of the hospital’s capacity and ensures that all departments are working with the same information.” “Such a control centre could then also connect with other hospitals, ambulance services, emergency services and defence,” Derksen says. “This would enable us to respond much more effectively to a sudden increase in demand for healthcare, for example during a crisis.”<h2>Specialist care on the frontline</h2>Once such an infrastructure is in place, medical professionals based in a hospital could, in an emergency, provide remote support and advice to military personnel on the frontline. “You cannot always bring a specialist to the location of an injured service member. But you can use technology to bring specialist expertise to that location. A service member or medically trained colleague on site can carry out procedures while receiving instructions remotely from a doctor or specialist.” &nbsp;Text: Mirjam van Huet, MCM tekst&nbsp;

From hospital to frontline: technology as the link between civilian and military healthcare