Dr. Nicky Hekster

Dr. Nicky Hekster

Lecturer
Expert areas: Health & Education, Information Technology

Biography

As an Executive Professor at TIAS, Nicky coordinates and teaches the Business Analytics and Business Intelligence, MScMBA program. He also lectures in the Masterclass Digital Innovations in Healthcare and the Advanced Program Clinical Business Administration. He is an expert in artificial intelligence, particularly in the fields of Healthcare and Life Sciences.

Nicky Hekster worked for IBM for 35 years as the Technical Leader for Healthcare & Life Sciences in the Benelux region. From 2016-2021, he held a pan-European role at IBM Watson Health. In this capacity, he focused on solution development, architecture and design, and validation, addressing various customer challenges across the Healthcare and Life Sciences ecosystem using data, AI, and cloud technology.

From 2010 to 2014, he was the chairman of IHE Netherlands (Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise), contributing to the coordinated use of Healthcare ICT standards in the Netherlands for regional and national exchange of medical information. He was also a member of the standardization working group of OIZ, the association of Dutch ICT companies in healthcare.

From 2021-2023, he chaired the Health and Care working group within the Dutch Blockchain Coalition. In this role, he not only coordinated the use of blockchain in Dutch healthcare but also attracted companies (from startups to Med and Big Tech) engaged in so-called Privacy Enhancing Technologies, methods to protect healthcare data while making it exchangeable, enabling knowledge sharing.

Nicky is a member of the Advisory Board of Clinical Informatics (TU/e) and the Advisory Board of Fruitpunch AI for Health (TU/e). He is also a jury member for the Prix Galien – MedTech Awards.

He studied mathematics and physics at the University of Amsterdam, where he obtained his PhD in pure mathematics in 1986. He is inspired by the impact that data technology can have in improving our lives.

Publications