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image - A graphic novel co-created by artist Miriam Libicki and Holocaust survivor David Schaffer for the Narrative Art & Visual Storytelling in Holocaust & Human Rights Education project

A graphic novel co-created by artist Miriam Libicki and Holocaust survivor David Schaffer for the Narrative Art & Visual Storytelling in Holocaust & Human Rights Education project. Made possible by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).

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Tag: IoT

High-tech medicine

High-tech medicine

A 1-year-old boy being treated with a novel gene therapy drug. “Usually, this type of injury with a hemophiliac patient would involve hours in the emergency room, with repeated doses of intravenous coagulation factors,” said Prof. Gili Kenet, director of the National Hemophilia Centre at Sheba Medical Centre. (photo from IMP)

From wearables that allow cardiac specialists at a hospital in Ramat Gan to monitor a patient’s cardiac performance thousands of miles away from home, to giving gravely ill patients a new lease on life with groundbreaking new therapies, Israeli medical innovators are almost literally thumbing their noses at the Angel of Death and changing the way we live.

According to start-up “ecosystem” sources, there are at least 6,000 active start-up companies operating in Israel. Within the realm of digital health, the number of active start-up companies engaged in this field has grown from 65 companies in 2005 to more than 400 in 2018. A significant number of these start-ups are being financially supported by global corporations such as Philips, GE Healthcare, Merck and IBM. Some of these companies have opened up offices close to start-up hubs in Haifa (near the Technion) and Metro Tel Aviv, the recognized “capital” of Israeli business and high-tech.

photo - This digital watch developed by the Sheba medical team and Datos Health is equipped with an app that contains a care path specially designed for each patient
This digital watch developed by the Sheba medical team and Datos Health is equipped with an app that contains a care path specially designed for each patient. (photo from IMP)

“Israel serves as a global incubator of innovative ideas for a variety of reasons,” said Dr. Eyal Zimlichman, deputy director general, chief medical officer and chief innovation officer at Sheba Medical Centre, which is located in Ramat Gan and is the largest facility of its kind in the Middle East. “First of all, it’s in our genes. Secondly, there is the military aspect, where we are taught to improvise when necessary in the field. These things allow us to be naturally innovative. This has trickled down into the medical field, where we are offering the highest level of medical care. I also believe unique innovations in medicine, that will impact the world for the next 100 years, will be developed in Israel.”

Prime examples of Sheba Medical Centre’s innovative efforts revolve around combating potentially fatal diseases such as cancer with immunotherapy, oncology’s new medical “magic bullet”; targeting hemophilia with a novel gene therapy drug; and creating an app for a wearable device used by people with serious heart and diabetes issues.

Immunotherapy is a treatment that uses our body’s own immune system to invade and destroy cancer. CAR-T (chimeric antigen receptor) and TIL (tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes) are not universal cancer cures at this stage. However, there are ongoing clinical trials being conducted for major pharmaceutical companies and America’s National Institutes of Health at Sheba Medical Centre’s oncology unit, where end-stage cancer patients are being treated with CAR-T, which specifically targets leukemia and lymphoma, and TIL, which zeroes in on melanoma and ovarian cancer patients.

Seventeen people with cancer were treated at Sheba during an initial CAR-T trial, after all of these patients had displayed zero improvement in the wake of traditional chemotherapy treatments and bone marrow transplants. Of the 17, 75% had a complete response to the CAR-T. One of those patients, an 8-year-old girl from Bnei Brak, was the first child to achieve complete remission from childhood leukemia. A Sheba centre oncologist said, “When we came to give her the CAR-T cells, she was very, very sick. She couldn’t even get out of bed. When we came back to visit her three weeks later, she was going back and forth on her rollerblades.”

A few weeks ago, a 1-year-old boy became the youngest patient in the world suffering from both severe hemophilia A and an unusual allergy to be treated with a gene therapy drug that only recently was approved for use in the United States. The new drug, developed by an American biopharmaceutical company, contained a “bispecific antibody” that was injected into the child at Sheba Medical Centre. According to clinical trial results published in The New England Journal of Medicine, the drug has shown a 90% reduction in bleeding in children and a 70% reduction in adults.

photo - Prof. Gili Kenet
Prof. Gili Kenet (photo from IMP)

“This is a new, exciting era with many novel options for improved care and even complete cure of patients with hemophilia,” said Prof. Gili Kenet, director of the National Hemophilia Centre at Sheba. “The child’s mother is so happy with the new treatment. The child had experienced a head trauma, but required no further therapy at all. Usually, this type of injury with a hemophiliac patient would involve hours in the emergency room, with repeated doses of intravenous coagulation factors. However, there were no complications, as his hemostasis (blood factors) was completely normal.”

Within the realm of what is known as IoT (internet of things), Prof. Robert Klempfner is blazing a trail of what he has dubbed IoMT (internet of medical things), where heart patients are able to engage in cardiac care and rehabilitation using wearables (for example, a high-tech watch), without having to return to the hospital for treatment.

“Today, the challenge for both heart doctors and cardiac care patients is what happens after a coronary event (heart attack), intervention or heart surgery,” said Klempfner. “What kind of regimen can be created for someone who might have had surgery at Sheba but lives and works in faraway places such as the United States or other countries? Within the new world of telemedicine and digital health, we have the technology to create rehab programs that are a win-win experience for both the hospital and the patient.

“We give cardiac care patients a watch,” he explained, “that is equipped with an app developed by the Sheba medical team and Datos Health [an Israeli start-up company]. The app contains a care path specially designed for each patient, containing rehab regimens, education material and secure communication with our patients. The medical centre receives data from wherever he/she is located when they are walking, exercising, doing other physical activities. Our technicians then analyze the info and provide ongoing feedback, assisted by smart algorithms provided by the innovative system.

“The program is also primed,” he said, “for patients who suffer from hypertension and diabetes that are now able to transmit all their measurements automatically to our system. This not only saves the patient time, by not having him/her return to the hospital, it saves the hospital time and bed space, so we are able to treat more patients. This ushers in a new era in digital healthcare.”

For more information on Sheba Medical Centre’s oncology unit, visit shebaonline.org.

Format ImagePosted on April 20, 2018September 30, 2019Author Steve K. Walz IMP MEDIA LTD.Categories IsraelTags cancer, children, health, IoMT, IoT, science, Sheba Medical Centre, technology
From mundane to medical

From mundane to medical

The Vancouver Israeli Technology Club team on Oct. 7 with event speakers, left to right: Ronen Tanne (VIT), Prof. Ran Goldman, Ido Sarig, Eran Elizur (VIT), Consul General D.J. Schneeweiss, Yaron Bazaz (VIT) and Rod Zehavi. (photo by Rinat Lanciano)

At the University of British Columbia Robson Square Theatre on Oct. 7, the Vancouver Israeli Technology Club (VIT) held their sixth event.

VIT was started in December 2013 by local entrepreneurs Ronen Tanne, Yaron Bazaz and Eran Elizur, who all have moved from Israel to Vancouver. Tanne is now mostly interested in cybersecurity and is co-founder of a startup company in Israel that is developing a security platform focused on the Internet of Things (IoT). Bazaz has started several companies related to social media, his most recent startup being Downtown, a mobile app that has been named the “Waze for Pedestrian Traffic.” Elizur has gained a wealth of experience in commercializing technology for large organizations, such as Creo, as well as starting his own company, KaleidoFlex, which was sold to an Asian display manufacturer a few years ago.

VIT’s mission is to create an ecosystem for Israeli and Jewish technology entrepreneurs, professionals and investors in British Columbia to meet, exchange ideas and collaborate with the general tech and investment communities in the region. Now numbering more than 450 registered members, the nonprofit society is completely funded by sponsorships, which cover the cost of running events.

The recent event attracted more than 200 people. It was sponsored by the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, McKesson Corp., Second City Real Estate, Navigate Surgical and Kodak.

After networking and refreshments, VIT welcomed D.J. Schneeweiss, consul general of Israel in Toronto and Western Canada, as the opening speaker. Schneeweiss spoke about the importance for Israel to maintain its relationship with the “Israeli diaspora” and commended VIT on its work and growth.

photo - Consul General D.J. Schneeweiss gives the opening address at the Oct. 7 VIT event
Consul General D.J. Schneeweiss gives the opening address at the Oct. 7 VIT event. (photo by Rinat Lanciano)

The keynote speaker was Ido Sarig, general manager of the IoT division in Wind River, an Intel subsidiary. Sarig, who was invited from Silicon Valley to present at the event, spoke about the IoT revolution and how it will transform people’s lives – when everyday appliances such as cars, home appliances and other objects (“things”) will be connected to the worldwide web. It is predicted that, over the next few years, the IoT revolution will connect more than 50 billion devices to the internet, compared to around 10 billion today (mostly mobile devices and smartphones).

Sarig spoke about the possibility of connected cars. By communicating with other cars and with their surroundings, cars will be able to drive, navigate and find parking autonomously without a driver. This could reduce congestion on roads and save gas. Furthermore, since connected cars comply with traffic rules better than human drivers and never drive under the influence of alcohol or drugs, this would also make them safer. Several big players, such as Intel, Google, Microsoft and IBM, are already establishing dominance in this field, but Sarig said there are also opportunities for startups and new players to make an impact in this emerging market. He pointed out that, as more “things” become connected, more security concerns will arise, as well as more opportunity for developing predictive analytics and remote diagnostics.

Following Sarig’s talk, two local entrepreneurs provided overviews of their companies.

Rod Zehavi, chief executive officer of RDV Systems, spoke about his company’s virtualization software, which caters to professionals in the architecture, engineering and construction sectors. It enables them to bring their projects to life by creating video clips of what their final project would look like using professional design files. Zehavi called this a “video game for professionals” since one can navigate in the virtual project and get multiple views of the end result. This could significantly reduce development times and facilitate decision-making. The RDV software has a mobile version, which allowed Zehavi to take event attendees on a virtual tour of a new construction project in Modiin, Israel, using their smartphones.

Finally, Prof. Ran Goldman of UBC and B.C. Children’s Hospital spoke about finding and using medical information online. Goldman pointed out that our habit of searching the internet for medical information to self-diagnose has led to a new disease: cyberchondriasis. This is the unfounded escalation of concerns about common symptoms based on reviews of online health searches. Goldman gave examples from his experience in the hospital’s emergency room. One story he shared was about a mother whose child had a skin rash, which she thought was an abscess. A friend directed her to a website that recommended a home treatment using heat, and she ended up burning her child by applying a glass full of boiling water to his rash before taking him to the ER. Goldman and his team have developed Med School for Parents, which is an online tool that helps parents of young children find reliable medical information.

After the speakers, program attendees had more opportunity for refreshments and networking. Tanne, Bazaz and Elizur have already begun working on the next event, as well as other plans for VIT’s future.

Format ImagePosted on November 6, 2015November 4, 2015Author VIT ClubCategories LocalTags D.J. Schneeweiss, Eran Elizur, Ido Sarig, IoT, Ran Goldman, Rod Zehavi, Ronen Tanne, Vancouver Israeli Technology, VIT, Yaron Bazaz
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