Global Government & Healthcare Leaders Meet in Israel to Pave Way for Future of Abraham Accords Health Cooperation

RAMAT GAN, Israel – November 3, 2022 – Sheba Medical Center, Israel’s largest medical center and a Newsweek Top-10 ranked world’s best hospital for the last four years, concluded its Future of Health (FOH) global summit today, bringing together healthcare innovators from around the world to discuss how to increase global cooperation to revolutionize the future of medicine.

Focusing on equitable access to healthcare, big data and clinical decision making, and global cooperation, the FOH Summit brings innovators, academia, startups, CEO’s, pharmaceutical and medical device representatives, investors, foreign policy makers and ambassadors under one roof. The summit is comprised of high-level discussions and presentations from world leaders in health, medtech, and public policy.

“We, as global healthcare leaders, have to create, design, plan, and dream the future for ourselves. I am proud that this year we have our friends, partners and brothers from Bahrain, the Emirates, and Morocco sharing the design of that future with us,” said Prof. Yitshak Kreiss, Director General of Sheba Medical Center, in his opening remarks. “Following the great success of the Abraham Accords, this sort of cooperation is the next stage of peace. Healthcare innovation is a gateway for that.”

Since the signing of the Abraham Accords in August 2020, Sheba Medical Center has played an instrumental role in solidifying relations and collaboration with Gulf countries to advance medical care and research. Sheba has partnered with Bahrain’s largest hospitals on research initiatives in addition to signing an MoU with the Department of Health in Abu Dhabi in the UAE for developing improved healthcare services.

The FOH summit included a panel of key players working to advance cooperation in the region, including US Ambassador to Israel Thomas Nides; Bahrain’s Ambassador to Israel, HE Khaled Yusuf Al Jalahma; Dr. George Cheriyan, CEO of AMH (American Mission Hospital) Bahrain; Dr. Magdy Riad Fayek, Director General of Healthcare UAE; Prof. Rabii Redouane, Cheikh Khalifa International Hospital University in Morocco; and Ms. Ayelet Nahmias-Verbin, Chairperson Israeli Export Institute.

“We need to go deeper and stronger with the countries that we have an existing relationship with. We have the opportunity through the Abraham Accords to create a global healthcare innovation hub,” said US Ambassador to Israel, Thomas Nides. “As someone who cares deeply about diplomacy and knocking down walls – healthcare can be the leading method for global collaboration and innovation.”

“Healthcare is the tip of the spear that will transform and translate what the Abraham Accords will be for the people of Bahrain and Israel,” said Dr. George Cheriyan, CEO AMH Bahrain. “Through healthcare, we have the most incredible opportunity to bring to life, collaboration in the region.”

The summit, hosted in collaboration with Sheba’s ARC Innovation Center, also included presentations by former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett; Director General of Israel’s Ministry of Health, Dr. Nachman Ash; Dr. Umang Patel, Chief Clinical Innovation Officer at Microsoft; Charles Kahn, President and CEO of The Federation of American Hospitals; and Prof. Shelly Dolan, CEO of Sir Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre.

The ARC (Accelerate Redesign Collaborate) Innovation Center endeavors to bring new technologies into the hospital and community ecosystem in order to revolutionize patient care. ARC allows seamless integration between innovators, scientists, startups, high-level developers, large corporate companies, investors, and academia-all under one roof. The ARC Innovation Center focuses on digital health technologies including precision medicine, big data, artificial intelligence (AI), predictive analytics, telemedicine and mobile health.

“If you are going to change healthcare, organic innovation is never enough. You have to work with innovation from outside to implement it into your institution and system. That’s what this forum and this collaboration is about,” said Prof. Eyal Zimlichman, Sheba’s chief innovation and transformation officer, and head of ARC. “For us to move the needle on the future of health innovation and its impact, we must have a shared vision. If we are all going in different directions, we won’t get anywhere. We must lower the barriers, open the gates, and bring the best innovation from outside.”