Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem was recently involved in a research study that brought Israeli tech and Israeli medicine together for a digital health revolution.
The research study was six months long, and was led by Shaare Zedek, AstraZeneca, the JVP Venture Capital Fund, Accenture, Margalit Startup City, and Amazon Web Services. The eight startups selected for the venture were: C2i Genomic, which develops technology for measuring the amount of cancer cells through a blood test and has raised over $100 million to date, Nucle.ai, a company with analyzes pathology images using artificial intelligence to predict drug response, Itamar Medical, which is engaged in the development and marketing of medical equipment for diagnosing sleep apnea, iBex, which develops artificial intelligence systems to create an algorithm and solutions for pathological detection of cancer, Octopus. which develops a “personal medical assistant” to support chronic patients. Imagene, a company that provides an artificial intelligence-based solution for performing genomic tests, Cordio, which develops technology to remotely monitor heart failure patients through cell phone speech analysis and Medial Earlysign, which develops artificial intelligence-based technologies for early detection of serious diseases from medical data analysis and has raised over $150 million.
“The start-ups selected to take part in the program were accepted after a thorough selection process that focused on the need and also the opportunities inherent in the field of medicine in the next decade,” explained Shimon Alkabetz, CEO of Accenture Israel. “This team of selected startups faithfully represents the best prominent trends in the worlds of medtech and wellness: from the implementation of artificial intelligence applications and advanced processing of big data to streamline the decision-making process through advanced computer vision based on imaging systems to genetic diagnosis for customized treatment. This partnership will be a fruitful starting point for revolutionary medical solutions that will address patients in Israel and around the world and improve their quality of life,” he said.
The study focused on promoting “digital health” by creating collaborations between startups, international pharma companies, investors, health institutions, and high-tech leaders. As the global healthcare system continues to advance, ground-breaking medical technological developments need to be implemented in strategic ways, so that the industry can continue to move forward. A combination of these entities enables the creation of a supportive package that helps companies participating in the program to break into the global market. The main support of the program is pinpointing the challenges that have been identified as most significant for Israeli startups, such as validating the solution with global customers, developing a sustainable business model, integrating solutions into international health systems, using databases, and thinking about ways to get to the “go to market” stage.
Since Israel is well represented, and considered a world leader, in both medicine and high-tech, Shaare Zedek’s participation in this study was very fitting.
