Medical Gaming & AI Visionary Sam Glassenberg Joins ARC at Sheba as Head of Emerging HealthTech Initiatives

ARC, the global health innovation engine and transformation arm of Sheba announced the appointment of Level Ex founder and CEO Sam Glassenberg as Head of Emerging HealthTech Initiatives. A global pioneer in medical gaming and digital simulation, Glassenberg brings over a decade of experience developing technologies that are transforming how clinicians learn, train, and care for patients.

In his new advisory role, Glassenberg will lead ARC’s efforts to integrate AI and videogame technology into clinical care. His work will focus on developing new models for medical training, diagnosis, and patient engagement, using AI, videogame neuroscience and immersive digital tools to solve real-world clinical challenges. 

“Sheba is doing mission-critical work, both in Israel and around the world,” said Glassenberg. “Sheba and ARC are actively shaping the future of medicine. I want to help however I can: specifically leveraging AI and game technology to drive this effort forward. This is also a chance to reconnect with Israel’s incredible game development community—now a major force in the global industry—and build a blueprint for collaboration between healthcare and games worldwide.”

Glassenberg is the founder of Level Ex, a pioneering medical video game company whose apps are used by over three million people worldwide, including more than one million clinicians. Its games use high-fidelity simulations and real medical cases to challenge users across specialties from dermatology to cardiology. Level Ex also creates tools for patients and caregivers, including Level One, a free mobile game developed after Glassenberg’s own daughter was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, to help families better understand and manage the condition.

Glassenberg has achieved multiple exits in the field of medical videogames with the acquisition of Level Ex by German medical device leader Brainlab in 2020, and its growing life sciences business more recently acquired by Relevate Health in 2024. He will continue to lead his teams at Level Ex and Relevate while advising ARC. 

Under Glassenberg’s leadership, ARC will work to integrate medical gaming into clinical workflows to accelerate physician training, boost patient engagement, and explore new therapeutic models, turning Sheba into a living lab for game-driven healthcare innovation. Glassenberg will work closely with ARC’s newly launched AI Center, led by Dr. Ayelet Akselrod-Ballin, to explore how simulation and AI can be combined to enhance clinical decision-making, an area with the potential to redefine how hospitals operate and how care is delivered.  ARC will leverage best-practices gleaned from the videogames industry’s rapid adoption of generative AI, and improve its own AI models using synthetic data generated through techniques honed in videogame development.

“Sam brings a unique depth of understanding at the intersection of gaming and healthcare,” said Prof. Eyal Zimlichman, Founder and Director of ARC and Chief Transformation and Chief AI Officer at Sheba Medical Center. “As ARC enters its next phase of growth, his expertise will be key to applying the principles of gaming and simulation to build smarter, more scalable solutions that benefit both patients and providers.”

Glassenberg will also be delivering a keynote at the annual global ARC Summit in Tel Aviv on Thursday.