Carl Holst, Chairman and CEO of the Danish Regions, and Niels Soelberg, CEO Microsoft Denmark, signed an agreement to examine how new technologies and solutions can provide benefits in the future of hospital operation.
The healthcare sector in the Region of Southern Denmark is moving toward a radical transformation when nine new hospitals and hospital units at a total cost of 1.5 billion USD are to be built over the next 10 years. To enable the best possible conditions for health innovation and patient care, the Region of Southern Denmark has partnered with Microsoft. Their cooperation will be anchored in the Science Park in Odense, which aims to develop the intelligent health technologies of the future.
"In the Region of Southern Denmark, we have for a long time benefitted from cooperating with the private sector, and we are therefore very pleased to be able to make an agreement with a company like Microsoft, which is one of the world's leading companies, with a great focus on quality, innovation and creativity," says Carl Holst.
The parties have agreed on a common platform for development, where the Region of Southern Denmark can benefit from Microsoft's large networking and development opportunities, while Microsoft gets a strong partner in the Danish health sector. This agreement is an example of how Microsoft, together with partners, helps develop innovative and scalable solutions that enable a connected health ecosystem for predictive, preventive, more sustainable and personalized care.
"The Region of Southern Denmark is a leading region in relation to welfare innovation. We believe that technology can transform the healthcare system and patient care, and innovative initiatives like this are necessary to make this possible. Among other things, we and the Region will test the latest health technologies - including technology and solutions that allow that patients themselves to take greater part in their own care and more easily obtain and share patient information," says Niels Soelberg.
"We see great opportunities in working with Region of Southern Denmark,. We can both benefit from direct contact with patients, clinical and IT staff to implement and test Health IT solutions in a real life Lab, to ensure that health innovation brings real impact for better health" says Neil Jordan.
The possible synergies in public-private partnerships is a key reason why the Region of Southern Denmark focusses so intensely on welfare technology in healthcare. Carl Holst is pleased and proud that the Region of Southern Denmark has evolved into a national flagship for welfare technology, and he sees several benefits to be gained.
"We have good experience with joint investments in welfare technology, which gives patients better treatment, makes hospitals more productive and not least strengthens regional business development," he says.
As part of the business development strategy in the region, The Southern Danish Growth Forum focused on welfare technology - and the Region's and Microsoft partnership will give a number of local companies new business opportunities.
"We need partnerships with large companies such as Microsoft for our investments in development and commercialization to succeed. With Microsoft onboard, also smaller local companies are able to benefit from Microsoft’s much larger and global value chain," says Carl Holst.
"This partnership gives access to many small and medium-sized companies as well as entrepreneurial businesses in Denmark. It gives means to promote local development and innovation, which makes a real difference and improve healthcare outcomes," says Niels Soelberg.
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