Building solutions from within hospitals

SPARC, a global health-tech entrepreneurship school and accelerator program based at Sheba Medical Centre in Israel, launched its first Australian cohort in partnership with Monash University’s Velos Accelerator last week.

SPARC is a core initiative of the ARC Innovation Centre (Accelerate, Redesign, Collaborate), designed to transform healthcare by training clinicians and researchers to become entrepreneurs.

SPARC alumni have successfully established multiple companies and filed numerous patents. The program is a significant driver of the ARC ecosystem, which has seen startups generate over $4 billion in value and attract more than $1 billion in total funding.

The 12-week program delivered by SPARC bridges the gap between clinical ideas and market-ready solutions by teaching healthcare professionals how to build and scale medical startups. It offers courses that cover the entire journey from ideation and patent filing to pitching to international investors.

The local program opened with two intensive in-person days led by Israeli facilitators Liat Aaronson and Uri Mestechkin, who travelled from Sheba Medical Centre to work directly with the cohort.

Participants arrived with real challenges from their own clinical experience, including how to support stroke patients after discharge, how to help families navigate autism care, how to improve patient understanding after consultations, and how to better model complex disease in research.

“Every clinician knows where the system doesn’t work,” said Idan Goldberger, CEO of the Australian Friends of Sheba Medical Centre. “What’s been missing is the belief and the tools to do something about it. SPARC changes that dynamic.”

The remainder of the program will be delivered online, leading to a final in-person pitch event in June in front of healthcare leaders and potential investors.

Discussing her experience of facilitating SPARC at Monash University, Aaronson said it was “incredibly positive”.

“We were inspired by the local talent and entrepreneurial spirit of the clinicians and researchers in the cohort and felt very welcome by the Monash ecosystem and its leadership. The commercial viability of the ideas is very promising and the cross-pollination between local talent and Israeli innovation promises to bring interesting results.”

Mestechkin added the program aims to “bring the spirit and methodology of Israeli innovation as developed by Sheba Hospital’s ARC innovation centre”.

While some ideas may evolve into startups, the real ambition is cultural – to move from a system where problems are accepted to one where they are actively challenged by the people closest to them.

SPARC has trained over 1000 clinicians from 19 different countries and multiple medical departments, including specialised cohorts for oncology and nursing.

The current cohort focuses on clinicians, but the model is designed to extend across entire hospital systems – from nurses to logistics teams – creating a new kind of internal capability.

Beyond the program itself, SPARC represents a practical bridge between Israel and Australia built through shared challenges, real people and hands-on work.

“This is how collaboration should look,” Goldberger said. “Not just conversations, but capability being transferred, relationships being built, and systems learning from each other in real time. Sheba brings a very Israeli instinct to move quickly, challenge assumptions and find a way forward. When that meets the depth and discipline of Australia’s healthcare system, there is real potential.”

Sheba Medical Centre, is consistently ranked among the world’s leading hospitals and currently ranked seventh globally.