From left to right, David Barone, Tamar Raz, Megan Ranney, Roey Tzezana,Carol C. Malysz, Amy Zimmerman, Avi Nevel
The Rhode Island-Israel Collaborative (RIIC) and RI Bio jointly organized an event on Wednesday, June 12th entitled, " New Israeli Innovation in Digital Health Shaping the Future of Healthcare Event in Rhode Island "
the first of its kind event in Rhode Island developing collaboration between Israeli and Rhode Island experts. Opening remarks were given by Mr. Avi Nevel, President and CEO of the Rhode Island Israel Collaborative and Carol Malysz, Executive Director of Rhode Island Bio.
The event was moderated by Megan L. Ranney MD MPH, Director of the Emergency Digital Health Innovation Program / Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine / Brown University, who gave opening remarks, followed by 3 Israeli presentations. David Barone, Principal, Boston MedTech Advisors, Inc. who spoke about the overall state of digital health in Israel and the ecosystem. David also shared some examples of new Israeli startups in the field.
Dr. Tamar Raz, Chief Executive Officer of Hadasit Medical Research Services & Development Ltd. who spoke about Hadassah Hospital and its ecosystem for entrepreneurs and the first new accelerator that was opened at Hadasit in collaboration with IBM Alphazone, Israel. She discussed the strategy of the platform built to advance companies in the field and gave examples of the companies who were selected for the first cohorts.
Dr. Roey Tzezana, a future studies researcher at Tel Aviv University and research fellow at Brown University discussed digital health and how it will look in 20-30 years from now.
The event was followed by short remarks of Israel Deputy Consul General to New England, Daniel Agranov, who talked about the upcoming relationship between Rhode Island and Israel academic institutions and was presented by Rhode Island Secretary of Commerce, Stefan Pryor. Secretary Pryor then discussed innovation, programs available in Rhode Island and the great interest the state has in continuing and developing the digital economy, citing companies as J & J, GE Digital who have their digital health operations in Rhode Island. He further elaborated on the strong ecosystem lead by the Rhode Island academic institutions, RISD, URI and Brown University and the state interest in growing Rhode Island and Israel business, academia and research relationships.
After Dr. Megan Ranney moderated a panel discussion that included the speakers, Secretary Pryor and Amy Zimmerman, HIT Coordinator at the RI Executive Offices of Health and Human Services (EOHHS) discussed the different approaches and how digital health should be adapted in Rhode Island under the title of the discussion. Following were questions from the participants. The event ended with a call for Rhode Islanders and Israeli's in the field to continue collaboration.
The event took place at the Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown Medical School. Event sponsors were: the BIRD Foundation, The Consulate General of Israel to New England, IBM, Emergency Digital Health Innovation, BetaXAnalytics, Hadasit Medical Center, IBM Alphazone and Science Abroad.