What You Should Know:
- Allegheny Health Network (AHN) and the Israel Innovation Authority sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to establish a formal affiliation between AHN’s Research Institute and the Innovation Authority to support Israeli healthcare startups.
- The strategic alliance will provide Israel Innovation Authority with access to AHN facilities for pilot projects, advanced technology support, and other forms of program assistance.
Pilot Program to Support Israeli Medical Innovation
The organizations will collaborate on an array of technologies and business development opportunities that have the potential to bring some of Israel’s most promising health technology startups to Pittsburgh, giving the companies — and the entrepreneurs behind them — a local research partner and a foothold for American operations.
After the collaboration is finalized later this year, applications to the program will be opened in Israel, with the Innovation Authority and the AHN Research Institute jointly selecting, screening and approving finalists. The selected companies will then receive up to 50% funding from the Israel Innovation Authority for conducting joint research and development projects or pilots together with AHN.
The AHN Research Institute may also choose to supply its own seed funding, in addition to non-monetary support such as access to AHN facilities, consulting services, research assistance, information technology assistance, and clinical and administrative staff across a variety of clinical settings, for the purposes of piloting new technologies or even new drug therapies.
“The ability to develop a drug suitable for a particular population, to ensure its safety, and to prove its efficacy with precision, is paving the way for faster, smarter, and cost-effective medical care,” said Dr. Amiram Appelbaum, Chairman of the Israel Innovation Authority and Chief Innovation Scientist at the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology. “We are delighted to collaborate with an outstanding partner such as AHN, which has a rich legacy of advancing pioneering scientific research and groundbreaking clinical innovations that have improved the health and well-being of so many people over the decades.”
This collaboration will be part of the Innovation Authority’s larger International Health Centers R&D and Piloting program, which established similar partnerships with the Mayo Clinic, Hartford HealthCare and Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals in the U.S., as well as hospitals in the United Kingdom and Germany.
This new collaboration “will enable the Israeli medical innovation ecosystem to access top-tier facilities, know-how, infrastructure and expertise on a global scale, and provide Israeli companies with a new launchpad for their technologies and services,” Dr. Appelbaum said.
