As countries across the globe face the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, recent FutureMed 2020 video conference provided a broad range of perspectives and practical insights from world leaders, decision-makers, experts, and other thought leaders directly involved in all aspects of responding to the recent Covid-19 emergency. Focusing on the practicalities of coronavirus response, the event addressed key global health challenges, including crisis management, preparedness for the next wave, innovation, and digital health.
While exploring the pluralism of approaches around the globe to pandemic response, the conference highlighted the importance of partnerships and cooperation between key players and countries. A selection of video clips below provides insights into Israel’s unique innovation ecosystem and its contribution to the fight against the pandemic, as well as an overview of best practices, highlighting the importance of Europe-Israel cooperation in the face the global COVID-19 challenge.
1. Brig. Gen. (Ret.) Dr. Daniel Gold, who heads Israel’s Defense Research and Development Directorate (DDR&D), which sets Israel’s extensive military R&D policy, discussed the unparalleled collaboration between Israel’s defense, health, and tech sectors, which led to multiple rapid developments for combating coronavirus.
2. Dr. Kira Radinsky, the chairperson and CTO of Diagnostic Robotics, and Uri Bettesh, Datos Founder & CEO, discussed how the most advanced technologies in the field of artificial intelligence can be harnessed improve contact tracing as well as patience triage across the globe, combining low and high tech.
3. Dr. Hans Henri P. Kluge (Belgium), who serves at the WHO Regional Director for Europe, discussed the importance of exchange on best practices in pandemic response and of strong partnerships and international cooperation on health system performance and reforms.
4. Professor Eran Segal from the Department of Computer Science at the Weizmann Institute of Science discussed how data, science and innovation could change the landscape towards the winter wave of the pandemic.
5. Ashish K. Jha, MD, MPH, a professor of global health at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, provided a US-centric look at the global challenge of COVID-19 and the impact of public health policy on the pandemic trajectory.
6. Prof. Eugene Kandel, CEO of Start-Up Nation Central (SNC) and professor of Economics and Finance at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University, discussed the reasons for a uniquely rapid surge of coronavirus-related solutions provided by the Israeli start-up ecosystem.
Prof. Ran D. Balicer, the Chief Innovation Officer at Clalit Health Services, Israel’s largest healthcare organization, as well as founding director of the Clalit Research Institute, discussed how data collected by HMO like Clalit can serve to improve predictive proactive care in the times of the pandemic.
FutureMed 2020 was a nonprofit event organized by Israel’s healthcare organization Clalit, as well as HIMSS – the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society. You can view all conference sessions on dedicated website: https://www.futuremed2020.org/.