Determining the value of digital care: what matters?

In his inaugural lecture on 21 May 2026, Henk Herman Nap emphasized that assessing the value of digital care goes beyond measuring cost savings and efficiency alone. Other key aspects include quality of life, workload, usability and inclusivity.  

At the same time, the rapid pace of technological developments – often driven by AI – requires new ways of evaluation. Traditional, long-term studies do not always align with this fast-moving reality. What does this mean for the way we assess digital and hybrid care technologies? And how can care organizations put value assessment into practice? 

We asked Henk Herman Nap, Professor of Value-Based Digital Care Innovations at Eindhoven University of Technology and expert in digital care at Vilans. 

Why is value assessment so important right now? 

'Digital care is growing rapidly, but we need to better understand what these technologies actually deliver. Without proper value assessment, we risk continuing to experiment without achieving structural improvements.' According to Nap, collaboration plays a crucial role. By working together with care organizations, researchers and policymakers – and sharing knowledge – duplication of effort can be avoided and proven innovations can be implemented more quickly. To support this, a Value Assessment Consortium has been established, bringing together different stakeholders. 

Why do we need a different approach to evaluation? 

'The speed of technological development is a major challenge. Digital and hybrid care are constantly evolving, partly due to AI.' In practice, many similar pilots are often conducted simultaneously, while the technology continues to evolve in the background. This makes it difficult to fully utilize results. Traditional, long-term research methods are often too slow and rigid for this dynamic context. Instead, care organizations need to adopt more flexible and iterative evaluation approaches, regularly asking: 

• Does this still work? 
• For whom does it work? 
• Under what conditions? 

Nap also highlighted the need for new ways of collecting experiences, especially among vulnerable clients and busy care professionals. Long surveys and traditional data collection methods are not always suitable in these settings. 

How can care organizations get started? 

'Care professionals often quickly sense whether an innovation works, but it is important to substantiate that insight.' Value assessment helps make the real impact of technology visible – for both professionals and clients. It supports better decision-making about whether to: 

• continue using a solution, 
• stop using it, or 
• scale it up. 

Importantly, organizations must also consider the context: technologies are rarely used in isolation. Multiple tools often interact and influence each other. Financing is another key factor – organizations need to demonstrate value to funders. 

At Vilans, this practical application is supported by tools such as the Value Palette Framework which helps organizations systematically map both: 

• hard outcomes (for example time savings),
• soft outcomes (for example workload and quality of life).

How will value assessment evolve in the future? 

'Today, we often assess value afterwards. In the future, we will increasingly do this during use.' Because technology continues to evolve, its value is not static. This means value assessment will shift from retrospective evaluation to real-time guidance and continuous learning. 

Other important developments include: 

• focusing on combinations of technologies, rather than single solutions (for example sensors, eHealth and AI working together); 
• putting users at the centre, by involving clients and care professionals more actively and in ways that suit them; 
• collecting richer insights, without overburdening users. 

This broader and more integrated perspective will help create a more complete understanding of what truly matters in practice.