Jurriaan van Rijswijk
Jurriaan van Rijswijk is a serial entrepreneur and venture builder at the intersection of healthcare, technology, and behavior change. He is the founder of Games for Health, a company that designs, develops, and commercializes digital health solutions for international healthcare markets, with a focus on turning validated innovation into scalable products.
With nearly 30 years of experience in entrepreneurship, business development, and applied game design, Jurriaan has built and led ventures that use playful interaction and human-centered design to improve patient outcomes, engagement, and recovery. His portfolio includes products such as Post-ICU and NeoDiary, developed to address real-world challenges in care delivery and patient support.
One of the best-known examples is Post-ICU, a digital diary platform designed to support recovery after intensive care. The solution has been recognized for its impact on post-ICU care and won the Dutch National Healthcare Innovation Award in 2021.
Jurriaan is also the founder and chairman of the Games for Health Europe Foundation, a leading international ecosystem for the research, development, and implementation of games and playful interaction in health. Through this platform, he connects healthcare providers, researchers, innovators, investors, and industry partners to accelerate the adoption of meaningful digital health innovation.
His work has received multiple recognitions, including the SpinAward, Dutch Game Award, and ICT Personality of the Year Award.
At Games for Health, we develop digital health solutions at the intersection of healthcare, technology, science, and game design. Our work focuses on creating meaningful, evidence-informed interventions that improve patient engagement, support healthcare professionals, and help innovations land in real-world practice. Through Games for Health Europe, we are also building a broader platform for international collaboration between healthcare providers, innovators, researchers, investors, and industry partners who want to accelerate impactful digital health adoption across Europe.
What first sparked your interest in this field?
What first sparked my interest was the realization that people are naturally driven by play, curiosity, motivation, and interaction, while healthcare often struggles to activate exactly those qualities. I became convinced that if we design digital health solutions in a more human and engaging way, we can create much stronger outcomes for both patients and professionals.
Has a patient, situation, or experience changed how you view this work?
Yes. Across multiple projects, especially in vulnerable care contexts, I have seen that the real value of innovation is not in technology alone, but in how it supports people emotionally, practically, and socially. Those experiences have made me even more focused on solutions that are not only innovative, but also implementable and meaningful in daily care practice.
What do you hope the audience will take away from your presentation?
I hope the audience will leave with practical inspiration on how digital health can be designed and implemented in ways that truly engage people and create lasting value. I would also hope the session opens doors for new conversations and collaborations across organizations and countries.
What currently motivates you within digital health?
What motivates me most is the opportunity to help shape digital health solutions that are both impactful and scalable, while also strengthening the ecosystems needed to bring them into everyday care. That combination of innovation and collaboration is very much at the heart of both Games for Health and Games for Health Europe.
