20 years of itemedical

The 5 milestones

The 20-year history of itemedical actually begins … 23 years ago. Not in the garage, as is common in legendary stories about American IT greats. But in an attic room, where Dirk Rieuwers and Sebastiaan Overdijk developed a software solution in 1996 to manage patient data more efficiently. Meanwhile, itemedical grew from 2 to 30 employees, divided between a Dutch and a Belgian branch. A dive into our history, with five exciting stops along the way.

1996: start in an attic room

During a birthday party, Dirk Rieuwers speaks with his cousin Johan Wouters. He works as a nurse at the Rivierenland Hospital in Tiel. He tells Dirk about the Excel sheets brimming with data with which the nurses calculate the annual number of Intensive Care patients for reporting to management. Dirk – who runs the automation company Itécom at the time – assures Johan that something like this can be done much more efficiently from a database.

He asks Sebastiaan Overdijk to write the necessary software for this purpose. He knew him as a promising computer science student who once participated in the International Computer Science Olympiad. In Dirk’s attic room, they develop the idea into the first version of MediScore, a software solution that presents the right information at the departmental and management levels.

From first customer to substantiated sales

Hospital Rivierenland sees potential in the solution: they are the first to start working with MediScore ICU. Five customers later, Dirk pays another visit to Hospital Rivierenland. At the front desk, he meets Hans van der Meijden of Spacelabs Healthcare. Hans is impressed by MediScore, but also senses that Dirk’s strengths lie in IT rather than sales. In order to tackle sales more efficiently, Hans involves his Spacelabs colleague Eric Hesp in the project. This gives MediScore the wind in its sails commercially.

Own company with three partners

In 2000, sales take off to such an extent that Dirk Rieuwers, Hans van der Meijden and Eric Hesp establish itemedical B.V. Sebastiaan Overdijk joins the company full-time. A year later, Arno Hoogland joined the itemedical team. He worked as an ICU nurse at the Diakonessenhuis in Utrecht, where, as Application Administrator, he implemented the Patient Data Management System (PDMS) and explained it to his colleagues. From his practical experience, he is therefore the right man to further develop and promote MediScore to customers. In doing so, he goes beyond sales per se: as a Clinical Application Specialist, Arno also provides support to teams implementing the software.

Additional IT expertise

MediScore has long been the only reporting solution that automates the delivery of the minimum dataset for the NICE (Dutch Intensive Care Evaluation) Foundation for all participating ICUs – via the integrated NICE module. As a result, sales of MediScore continue to rise. In 2003 Pieter Baauw will therefore join Sebastiaan on the technical side.

In other hospitals, managers still have to enter and deliver these data manually. Thanks to a continuous series of new modules, MediScore remains relevant in ICUs. For example, through the automated export of quality indicators, which the NVIC (Dutch Society for Intensive Care) uses to monitor and improve the care provided. MediScore is still the most widely used reporting solution in the Netherlands: itemedical is proud that this software helps improve quality.

2003: authorized distributor

Phyllis Gotlib, then CEO/founder of iMDsoft, the provider of MetaVision. She looks to experienced partners to put this Patient Data Management System (PDMS) for the critical care environment on the map internationally – including in the Netherlands and Belgium. Especially after the Amsterdam hospitals AMC/VUmc and OLVG and the university hospital UZ Leuven in Belgium choose this software, it is looking for an ICT expert with a broad network.

At a trade show in Amsterdam, Phyllis Gotlib hears from Eric Hesp and Arno Hoogland that they visited almost half of the Dutch ICUs. For Phyllis Gotlib, that is the signal to entrust itemedical with the distributorship of MetaVision. That’s the start of a long-term partnership, with her occasionally switching distributors for other regions. The fact that itemedical remains a fixture is a sign of mutual respect and trust. It is the way to gather knowledge and expertise built up on ICT, Medical Technology and critical care. And that input helps itemedical continue to refine healthcare solutions.

Technology of the first man on the moon

In 2006, Spacelabs Healthcare acquired Del Mar Reynolds. Spacelabs is the company that provided NASA with the technology to monitor their astronauts in space. As a result, they knew in Houston, for example, how their men were doing on the moon. Del Mar Reynolds changed the world of holters. That’s why the acquisition is so important. Because the combination of cardiology diagnostics and monitoring expertise creates one of the most reliable heart monitoring devices on the market. Leading hospitals choose these holters in combination with the powerful analysis software ánd itemedical as a distributor of Spacelabs. As a result, this long-standing distributorship since 2004 is another example of a win-win in which you, as partners, gather reliable knowledge about operational techniques in a clinical environment.

2010: acquisition by Peter Hof

During his career at Philips and NXP Semiconductors, Peter Hof built international work experience and leadership in technology, project management and quality in Japan and America. In the world of semiconductors, diverse disciplines merge. Moreover, production takes place in different countries with different cultures. So that combination of high-tech knowledge, collaboration and development is similar to that of a complex healthcare environment. When Peter notices the combination of technical and clinical knowledge at itemedical, his interest is immediately piqued: he takes over the company and becomes CEO. Under his leadership, a quality unity emerges between innovative software development, good distributorship and process-oriented work.

2012: the southern expansion

In 2011, Nele Wuytens starts in the Dutch itemedical subsidiary. A year later, she becomes the driving force behind the new Belgian branch, itemedical N.V. From her clinical background, Nele introduces both MediScore and MetaVision on the Belgian market. This gives itemedical an even greater foothold in the healthcare world. This generates new resources for our growth company to further develop the solutions.

Certified quality

In order to make the quality and relevance of itemedical solutions clear to the outside world in an objective way, an ISO 13485 company certification is starting. This must be met as a company to develop medical devices. After certifying the Quality Management System in 2012, the MediScore Medication Interaction Module (MIM) receives the CE Class IIa certificate.

2019: the silent IC

With the trend toward single rooms and the increase in advanced medical devices around the patient, attention to “alarm fatigue” is growing and a vision of a patient-centered, silent ICU is emerging. This is where itemedical based the development of the MediScore Medical Device Data Gateway (MDDG). The new MediScore solution will receive CE (0344) Class IIb certification in 2024 and ensures that caregivers receive only clinically relevant alarms and can therefore respond faster. This keeps them much better focused to provide the best care while allowing patients to recover in calm conditions.

The future? Further investing in growth of knowledge and collaboration

The past decades have been extremely exciting. But what does the future bring?

• Twenty years after its inception, itemedical continues to work on continuous development in specific segments: medical alerting, alarm fatigue, safe and silent care environment, clinical research and hospital-wide access to vital signs, medication and alarms.
• Our academic approach anticipates a world in which clinical research is increasingly important. Based on the data from the Medical Device Data Gateway, we can contribute to scientific research through intensive collaboration with hospitals in the Netherlands and Belgium. From that clinical research we develop even better devices and together increase the quality of care.
• In addition to hospital-wide medical device connectivity, we continue to innovate in specialty areas with smart alerts, events and combinations of diagnosis and alarm data.
• We are taking the next step towards solutions for critical care and alarms in patients’ homes. After 20 years, the expertise and experience within the itemedical team is the basis for working efficiently and intensively with all clients. Thus, we offer everyone an approachable and diversified sounding board that is always nearby. Together, we give the healthcare world even more clout.