Sheba Medical Center Signs Deal With Iguazio To Improve COVID-19 Treatment

Israel’s Iguazio, a developer of a Data Science Platform for machine learning applications, has announced it will partner with Sheba Medical Center’s ARC (Accelerate, Redesign, Collaborate) innovation complex to deliver real-time AI through clinical and logistical use in order to improve COVID-19 patient treatment.

Iguazio will assist Sheba in two main projects. The first project is the optimization of patient care through clinical, real-time predictive insights. Sheba will incorporate real-time vita signs from patients by utilizing the patient’s medical history through the use of the Iguazio Data Science Platform. The patient’s medical history will help medical staff predict and mitigate complications such as COVID-19 patient deterioration.

The second project will optimize the patient’s journey with smart mobility, from the moment the patient arrives to Sheba and will continue after his or her departure. The patient’s entire journey will be orchestrated with AI, including: parking allocation, shuttle arrival times, patient routing and waiting, with times optimized using real-time data to ensure optimal patient care and satisfaction.  This also enables the management of patient flow to comply with COVID-19 social distancing regulations.

“Bringing real-time AI to every aspect of Sheba’s emerging City of Health is the next step in our digital transformation”, said Eyal Zimlichman MD, MSc, Sheba’s chief medical officer and chief innovation officer, and the founder of the ARC (Accelerate Redesign Collaborate) innovation complex. “After months of perfecting our AI research across many use cases, it’s time to bring them to life in our daily operationn.”

“Using Iguazio, we are revolutionizing the way we use data, by unifying real-time and historic data from different sources and rapidly deploying and monitoring complex AI models to improve patient outcomes and the City of Health’s efficiency”, added Nathalie Bloch, MD, head of Big Data & AI at ARC. 

Sheba is the largest medical center in the Middle East and has been leading Israel’s medical response to the global coronavirus pandemic from the start of the crisis in Israel. In late February, it was the first hospital in the country to establish a special off-campus unit designed to hospitalize Israelis potentially exposed to COVID-19 who returned from a coronavirus-stricken cruise ship and were immediately sent for mandatory isolation. The hospital, known for its innovative solutions, immediately set up technologies such as medical robots, devices, and AI-powered sensors operated remotely by doctors to monitor them. Its ARC complex, established in late 2018, aims to bring new technologies into the hospital and community ecosystem in order to further improve patient care. The ARC center has a focus on digital health technologies including precision medicine, big data and predictive analytics, telemedicine and mobile health.

Founded in 2014, Iguazio provides a data science platform that enables enterprises to develop, deploy, and manage AI applications at scale. The company has raised $72 million to date, including $24 million in January 2020.

“We are honored to be supporting Sheba, a global leader in healthcare innovation, especially in the midst of the current pandemic, when the community is relying on health facilities the most”, commented Asaf Somekh, co-founder and CEO of Iguazio. “Incorporating AI into these many real-time use cases is setting a new standard for medical centers worldwide.”