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HISTORIC PARTNERSHIP

Accelerating health innovation

NSW Health has signed a historic Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Sheba Medical Centre.

By Gareth Narunsky February 23, 2023, 9:05 am Edit
From left: Idan Goldberger, Brad Hazzard, NSW Health Secretary Susan Pearce, Australian Friends of Sheba's Daniel Abbott. On screen (top) Yitshak Kriess, Eyal Zimlichman, (bottom) Israeli ambassador Amir Maimon. Photo: NSW Health
From left: Idan Goldberger, Brad Hazzard, NSW Health Secretary Susan Pearce, Australian Friends of Sheba's Daniel Abbott. On screen (top) Yitshak Kriess, Eyal Zimlichman, (bottom) Israeli ambassador Amir Maimon. Photo: NSW Health

Israeli innovation is set to shake up Australian medicine with NSW Health signing a historic Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Sheba Medical Centre last Wednesday.

The agreement signed by NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard and Sheba director-general Professor Yitshak Kreiss paves the way to working together on advancing health and medical research and improving patient outcomes.

“The significant agreement will enable new opportunities for medical research, accelerate innovation and support early stage start-up companies in NSW,” Hazzard said.

“Our experts will be able to draw on the experience of the Sheba Medical Centre and its global network of innovators so we can continue to expand our knowledge, skills and capability and improve clinical care for patients.”

He added that a key aim of the partnership would be to overcome the challenges associated with getting health technology to market, “So patients are able to access life-saving treatments quicker.”

Sheba Medical Centre’s ARC (Accelerate, Redesign, Collaborate) model brings together more than 100 organisations, including leading academic medical centres, multinational industry partners, universities, venture capital firms and startups.

Chief transformation and innovation officer Professor Eyal Zimlichman, founder of ARC, said its mission is “to enable large-scale transformation of health around the world through innovations and collaborations”.

Australian Friends of Sheba CEO Idan Goldberger told The AJN, “The culture of innovation is one thing that we excel at. And certainly, with the startup companies we have in house, we want to create more impact. We want to be able to share the knowledge.”

Sheba has already established centre of innovation hubs around the world, including in the US, Canada, UK and Bahrain.

“Any government that is investing in Sheba Medical Centre and the centre of innovation, invests in itself,” Goldberger said.

He noted that while the local community gives generously to Israel, this shows Israel giving back.

“This is an example where Israel can get everything we gathered – the knowledge, the chutzpah – and bring it here to create something that is good for PR, good for the people of NSW tomorrow, and hopefully for the people of Victoria next week, and to the people of Queensland the week after.”

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