Todays newborns will be hyper-digital-natives. Just imagine what could have happened within 25 years from now, knowing that 25 years ago the first page was published in the World Wide Web. We have to (re)invent healthcare for them as well.

For that -amongst a lot of other steps- last year our Radboudumc REshape Center partnered with Rockstart’s Digital Health Accelerator to help the first batch of 10 digital health startups scale their businesses. The program is supporting the world’s most promising digital health startups to positively impact the healthcare system and the lives of billions of people. Are you a passionate digital health founder? Then you have 14 days left to apply for Rockstart’s second program in Health Valley that starts in October.

Rockstart’s Digital Health Accelerator is a seed investment, mentorship-based program that runs for an intensive 180 days in Health Valley, the Netherlands. Just a bike ride away from our Radboudumc Reshape Center in Nijmegen. The program helps startups to launch their products worldwide, get ready for growth investment or bootstrap into profitability. Rockstart’s 2nd Digital Health Accelerator program starts this October. The startups will be building towards Demo Day, where they present their businesses to over 400+ investors, CEO’s, mentors and the press.

“The Netherlands is the place to start for digital health founders. It provides startups Europe’s best business climate. It’s one of Europe’s leading markets to adopt digital health services. And the government supports you with tax benefits, innovation credits and grants. With Health Valley as best connected and most accessible digital health ecosystem of Europe this is the place to be”

“The Netherlands is the place to start for digital health founders. It provides startups Europe’s best business climate. It’s one of Europe’s leading markets to adopt digital health services. And the government supports you with tax benefits, innovation credits and grants. With Health Valley as best connected and most accessible digital health ecosystem of Europe this is the place to be”, says Casper Smeets as the new Program Director of Rockstart’s Digital Health Accelerator.

The movement for better health(care) growing in the Netherlands. And it’s growing quickly. This May we co-organized with the University Medical Centres of Groningen, Leiden and Maastricht Dutch Hacking Health, the world’s biggest health hackathon.

Also in May we set stage for Our Future Health, the world’s first blended conference on the future of health. Which created from 20+ locations worldwide more than 30 hours of content, sharing the latest healthcare technologies and impressive startup innovations. I invited four startups of Rockstart’s Digital Health Accelerator to present their solutions. You can see one of the startups’ video presentations here:

The e-Health week was organized in Amsterdam in June. We announced some  in our health endeavor ourselves. Minister Edith Schippers of Public Health announced a 20 million euro investment in e-health initiatives. The total investment of this FastTrack eHealth Initiative will substantially grow thanks to private parties like pension funds, investors and insurers. The initiative is expected to start in October and will run for the next four years.

It’s clear that the movement for better health(care) is growing fast in the Netherlands. This benefits digital health founders of course. As a mentor and partner of Rockstart, I support the selected digital health founders. By giving you advice and sharing my network. So you get a head start in building, validation and scaling your business. Because I believe that successful startups are one of the best ways to make healthcare better.

Are you a digital health startup that needs acceleration? Apply for the program which begins in Health Valley in October 2016 at digitalhealth.rockstart.com. Applications are being taken through 21st August and with just 14 days left, I would say, join the movement and let’s start improving health together 😉

About Rockstart
“The Global Startup Machine,” Rockstart’s accelerator program consists of three verticals: Web & Mobile, Smart Energy and Digital Health, where a total of 68 companies have been accelerated so far. These startups are comprised of 30 nationalities, have created more than 500 jobs, and 78% have received follow-on funding for a total of €33m+.

For more information about Rockstart, please visit: www.rockstart.com or follow them on  for the latest news. And look here if you are curious about the first batch of digital health startups.

Let’s start improving health(care) together.