Discover the highlights of 2020

We have been financing projects from the start of our existence, and for several years we have concentrated on driving change, and improving health as our mission. We applied a so-called "innovation agenda" in which we emphasized concepts such as "vitality, independence, conditions, and processes."

We won’t be doing that anymore. From the beginning of 2020 we will work programmatically. It means that we have defined two cohesive programs; we are actively seeking topics and organizations that will help us to achieve the goals of these programs. We expect to increase our impact with this approach. That is to say: to stimulate changes within systems and to improve health.

The first program concerns the health of the population. What needs to be done to make the Netherlands and its people healthier? The emphasis is therefore on “health” and not on “disease”. The development of the “Kavelmodel” [population health management model] and strategic collaboration with a number of partners is part of this program.

The second program is about lifestyle (medicine). In this program we reach out to organizations and institutions that are active in the field of intervention and developments which help to improve lifestyle factors; this includes issues that can be dealt with, for instance, in a general practitioner’s consulting room.

Question
Do campaigns aimed at managing the COVID-19 pandemic, and the use of digital news media and social media, have a demonstrably positive effect on improving personal hygiene?

Method
A diagnostic survey was distributed by a major national newspaper and a popular social influencer on 17 March 2020. The questionnaire was completed by more than 16,000 participants. Based on the analysis, infographics and a subsequent video were developed and distributed. Then it was measured again.

Findings
Exposure to a targeted campaign video and news article results in an approximately 2-fold increase in the likelihood of washing all required hand areas and a longer duration of hand washing.

Significance
These findings suggest that there is evidence that campaigns across existing digital news and social media platforms can be an effective means of helping combat critical health issues, such as COVID-19.

This research was conducted under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Leonard Hofstra from the Amsterdam UMCs (University Medical Centers). Our support fits into our lifestlye program.

The Swedish ELSA self-management platform helps patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) to self-manage their disease. Users gain insight into the effect that behavior and medications have on the progression of their disease. In addition, it enables remote monitoring by their doctors.

The disease causes painful joints, fatigue and stiffness. The cost of treating RA accounts for nearly 10% of total medicinal expenditure. Moreover, the medication in question is mostly expensive. The problem is that only a fifth of patients on medication experience real improvements. This is the reason why the right medication and dosage are often sought on the basis of trial and error.

Stringent monitoring is preferred for this purpose. It means that the patient must see the practitioner more frequently so that adjustments can be made more quickly.  Currently, RA patients see their doctor only once every 3-6 months. Within those window periods, no assessment of the disease development can take place. ELSA technology facilitates and improves this more stringent method for monitoring the progression.

Together with ELSA, we are seeking opportunities to collaborate with Dutch organizations and doctors. ELSA is a Noaber Ventures investment.

Superlijst Gezondheid [Superlist Health] is a multi-year campaign that supports supermarkets in making their range healthier and more sustainable. Superlijst is an initiative of Questionmark, but is co-developed and propagated by a coalition of NGOs with a background in health, nature & environment, human rights and animal welfare. Paramount to the Superlist campaign is a ranking of supermarkets with the criterion: to what extent do supermarkets make the responsible choice the easy choice?

The food environment in the Netherlands encourages unhealthy and unsustainable food. For example, weekly promotions by all Dutch supermarkets consist of 80% unhealthy food products. In terms of sustainability, the problem is similar. Most supermarkets advertise (too) cheap meat every week and hardly have any meat replacement products on offer. In addition, most supermarket chains have few vegetarian options, sometimes none at all, in their ready-made meal product sections.

So, while many consumers want to make responsible choices, the food environment actually encourages the opposite. Supermarket chains, which have a 50% market share in the total food supply, as well as a strong position of influence within production chains, are a logical starting point for initiating positive change.

Noaber supported this initiative als part of our lifestyle (medicine) program. The ranking results can be seen at:

Sweetch is an Israeli digital personal intervention program that guides it’s users in achieving goals relating to weight, activity, healthy nutrition and habits, as well medication adherence, and treatment protocols, all leading towards living a healthier life.

The company’s clinically validated Behavioral Intelligence Engine automatically turns millions of data points from smartphones, connected devices, and Patient Reported Outcomes, into personalized and contextual recommendations. These recommendations continuously adapt to a personal, environmental and behavioral preferences, and will adjust the users’ goals to promote a unique set of life habits and motivations.

The solution provides medical teams with insights into it’s patient’s health information. An  easy-to-use dashboard interface, enables personalized and just-in time follow-up with customized reports. The dashboard will strengthen the relationship between medical professionals en their patients, while improving measurable clinical outcomes, patient satisfaction, treatment efficacy and revenue