Over the course of 2023 Healthskouts had the privilege of supporting Flemish strategic research institute, VITO, in the strategic development of their citizen-centric health data platform called We Are.
The We Are platform is designed to give citizens control over their personal health data. It will enable them to collect personal data from multiple sources (e.g. data from wearable devices and personal data collected by others such as medical record data or environmental data) and share their enriched data in a trusted way with researchers, and – crucially – to enable new, highly personalised health services. By tapping into richer datasets, such services can develop algorithmic risk stratification models, predictive models or smart recommendation systems to power ever more personalised services.
The We Are platform is based on SOLID technology (Social Linked Data), which basically allows stakeholders to create value added services from personal health data, but without laying any claim, ownership or other, to that data.
VITO has also developed BIBOPP, an online tool for the prevention of chronic diseases in a local setting, based on co-creation with all stakeholders involved (citizens, care providers and policy makers). The tool offers people a tailored action plan to manage their health that is based on their responses to an evidence-based health questionnaire. In addition to the action plan, the user is provided a personalised list of local services and resources in the community. This tool is now being implemented in several Flemish municipalities, reaching their inhabitants with self-management tools for their health. BIBOPP is the first ‘app’ to be built on the We Are platform.
Healthskouts was involved in both projects, to explore a future business model for both initiatives and engage partners in the wider health ecosystem to develop use cases. We are super excited about these initiatives and believe that they have the potential to solve many of the key obstacles to data-driven healthcare and could thus significantly boost digital innovation in the future.
