Revolutionizing Rehabilitation: Start-Up Pilots at Sheba’s ‘Returning to Life’ Unit

At the heart of Sheba, has always been a constant drive for innovative transformation, a need to take the highest standard of medicine and healthcare technology and build upon it. The investing, healthcare R&D and new technologies mainly come into focus at Sheba’s ARC Innovation Center.

When the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in 2020, the news, while devastating, also acted as a catalyst that significantly accelerated our innovative drive.

Dr. Eyal Zimlichman, Chief Transformation Officer and Chief Innovation Officer at Sheba stated, “We knew that innovation would need to be central to winning the war against the pandemic so we went into what we called the ARC Covid-19 battle mode. In battle, Israelis know how to come together,”

Sheba’s ‘Returning to Life’ Unit Redefines Rehabilitation

Following the onslaught on October 7th, Sheba again recognized the urgent need to expand its facilities and establish numerous specialized units. Amongst them is ‘Returning to Life’, a unit dedicated to the physical and psychological rehabilitation of soldiers injured in the war. Leveraging a range of digital medical technologies and infusing it with a social and youthful atmosphere, this unit has redefined the path to recovery for these young men and women.

That said, with nearly 2,000 soldiers passing through and recovering in the unit, there is a dire need for innovative expansion.

Top Startups Join Sheba’s ‘Returning to Life’ for Next-Gen Rehab

With an objective of expanding its capabilities even further, ARC Innovation invited health tech startups to submit rehabilitation-related solutions for potential integration into the ‘Returning to Life’ unit. Just under 90 companies applied and out of them, eight were chosen to present their solutions to a panel of Sheba’s doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, occupational therapists. Amid the eight companies, two were selected to begin pilots within the ‘Returning to Life’ unit:

• Kemtai – A company that leverages AI technology and computer vision to provide personalized home exercise platforms.
• Cognishine – an intervention platform for speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists, and other health professionals who treat clients with difficulties in cognition, language, speech, and social-emotional impairments.

The two solutions provided by Cognishine and Kemtai will enable therapists to extend their capabilities in numerous ways. One approach will allow the rehabilitation process to continue at home once the patient is discharged. This will undoubtedly have a profound impact on the recovery of injured soldiers and further assist us in upholding the highest standards of healthcare at Sheba. We can’t wait to see the results of these pilots.