Santeon: Harmonizing healthcare data for better, more transparent patient outcomes with the Microsoft Intelligent Data Platform

“Data has to become the pillar which supports a sustainable healthcare system here in The Netherlands, and beyond.” 

Renske Veenstra, Program Manager IT at Santeon, is expounding on the value of data sharing in improving patient outcomes. 

As the head of the healthcare provider’s CIO Magazine award-winning Health Intelligence Platform Santeon (HIPS), Veenstra has played a central role in making real-time data-driven insights a day-to-day reality for patients and physicians in the seven public hospitals that make up the Santeon network. 

“The Dutch healthcare system faces mounting pressures,” Veenstra says. These include growing demand from an aging population, an increasing number of people with chronic diseases, plus a shortage of healthcare professionals and tightening budgets.

“We are convinced that connected data can provide the key to addressing these challenges,” she continues. “By connecting data, our physicians can talk to each other in real terms about how and where they can make processes more efficient and effective. With data we can learn from each other to improve healthcare.”

The key to making that vision a reality is having the ability to share data between the hospitals as freely as possible. 

“This is how HIPS was born,” says Veenstra. “We wanted to harmonize the disparate data governance structures across our network for better, more transparent patient outcomes. 

“That has been made possible with the Microsoft Intelligent Data Platform.”

Testing the limits of data exchange

Scattered across several regions of The Netherlands, the Santeon network of hospitals is a beacon of how collaboration can be achieved in the healthcare system – as well as a pioneer in the delivery of virtual care.

“Our Better Together learning system follows the value-based healthcare (VBHC) methodology,” explains Veenstra. “The program, a standardized improvement cycle across our seven hospitals, runs on 16 medical conditions. It was established in 2016 to increase the sharing of knowledge and best practices amongst almost 36,000 people working across the Santeon network.” 

The network includes the hospitals: OLVG, St. Antonius Ziekenhuis, Martini Ziekenhuis, Medisch Spectrum Twente, Canisius Wilhelmina Ziekenhuis, Catharina Ziekenhuis and Maasstad Ziekenhuis. “All our hospitals have the digital tools and systems to generate and process oceans of data,” says Anna van 't Klooster, Project Leader at Santeon. 

 “The challenge was that every hospital had their own data language and their own type of governance, making it very difficult to extract and use across the different hospitals,” she adds. 

So the team at Santeon set to work on establishing a way to connect data across the network. “We went to a hotel and locked ourselves up for a week with both technical and medical specialists,” recalls Veenstra.

“That’s how we decided how to harmonize the data and create the foundation of HIPS.” 

A hard-fought battle for data harmonization

Data harmonization on this scale is no small challenge, especially in a healthcare setting. So Santeon engaged Microsoft and partner Macaw to support them. 

“Microsoft Azure services were deployed for processing and analyzing data on the central platform – with interoperability standards for collaboration that supported Santeon with adoption, change management and upskilling of their employees,” explains Michel Hankel, Client Manager Professional Services at Macaw. 

“Over the year of implementation, the program grew to include multiple work streams, such as Santeon Training Academy on Azure, Data Architecture, Data Interoperability, Adoption and Change Management, plus Azure Foundations Landing Zone,” he adds. 

Three years later, the group has adopted Azure DevOps as a foundation of the initiative, and have also added Teams and SharePoint to enhance collaboration within the Santeon network. 

“We all use Azure DevOps to collaborate and share knowledge across the hospitals in the network through the use of Wiki,” says Veenstra. “So if you don't know the answer to something, your colleague on the other side of the country might do! 

“We also use User Stories in Azure Boards to delegate our tasks and if somebody needs help we can use the platform to discuss and work together in sprints, following an agile workstyle.”

Making sure all the staff in the group maximized the value of this bold new investment was top of mind for the Santeon team. So the team established ‘HIPSpiration’ – an upskilling initiative to enhance engagement with HIPS and adoption of the new data governance principles.

“HIPSpiration sessions are about inspiring people to work on this new platform by exploring how it can benefit them, and also how best to use it,” enthuses Veenstra.

Creating healthier, more transparent patient outcomes

The impact of HIPS has been immediate for Santeon, increasing collaboration across multidisciplinary specialties and contributing to learning in the organization more broadly. 

The introduction of Power BI dashboards has been a significant part of that.   

“These dashboards help us to share data in a better way, giving more useful insights into the best patient outcomes,” says Sjoerd Niehof, Chairman of the Medical Staff Association at Maasstad Ziekenhuis, Rotterdam.  

But perhaps the most profound impact has been on the patient experience. “We can now sit with the patient and look at various implications and outcomes of treatments for different conditions.  

“For a patient with kidney failure, for example, we have created dashboards to explore the different treatment options available at different stages of the condition. These provide insights to help clinicians in determining the best treatment for care – for example, at what stage a transplant, dialysis, or food intervention is most appropriate.”

The dashboards also allow the patient and clinician to “look into the future,” as Niehof puts it.  

“We can now look at how a patient’s condition is evolving over time and predict what to expect going forward. That’s something so new and exciting,” he enthuses. 

“It gives patients transparency over how their treatment is advancing and what the outcomes are likely to be, empowering them to make better-informed decisions about the care that best suits their circumstances.

“But as with all innovations in healthcare, this takes time and lot of testing together with patients, clinicians and technicians. It is a real team effort,” he concludes.

Proving the value of data in healthcare, worldwide

The Santeon team is keen to stress that improved data sharing and harmonizing is not only good for their group, it’s good for healthcare in The Netherlands, and beyond – and should be a priority for every healthcare provider. 

“Just do it,” enthuses Niehof.  “Start now, because this type of platform allows your healthcare organization to evolve.” 

“Work together with clinicians and learn together on how to use technology to improve healthcare,” adds Veenstra. “Clinicians play, and will continue to play, a crucial part in the treatment of patients. Technology can support them better in doing so. 

Speaking to the team at Santeon, it is clear they are proud of what they have achieved. “We want to tell other hospitals, and perhaps even the authorities, about what we’ve achieved with HIPS,” says Veenstra. “It's not a proof of concept anymore, it's not a research project. We are employing it on a daily basis. 

“Now, it would be really awesome if other hospitals could also make use of what we’ve developed, to do the same thing in their settings, and improve the lives of their patients too.”