FEBRUARY 16 • 2023 | 7

DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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T

he heartbreaking images 
coming from Turkey and 
Syria should serve as a 
warning to Israel, too.
Experts stressed that it’s not a 
matter of “if” Israel is heading 
for The Big One, 
but a question 
of “when” it will 
happen.
While Israel is 
always ready to 
rush to the scene 
of a foreign natural 
disaster, it is less 
prepared to tackle a large-scale 
catastrophe at home. 
In 2016, the Knesset Foreign 
Affairs and Defense Committee 
was presented with a scenario 
in which an earthquake in 
Israel would kill 7,000 people, 
seriously injure 8,600, destroy 
28,600 buildings, cause damage 
to another 290,000 buildings, and 
leave 170,000 people homeless.
Action has to be taken. Existing 
structures need to be reinforced. 
From Kiryat Shmona in the 
North, to Eilat in the South, via 
towns like Tiberias, Afula and Beit 
She’an among others, the risks are 
particularly high. 
Prime Minister Netanyahu last 
week instructed National Security 
Council Director Tzachi Hanegbi 
to assess Israel’s preparedness, 
and the Knesset’s Internal Affairs 
and Environment Committee 
Chairman Yakov Asher has called 
an urgent meeting on the matter.
We can’t stop earthquakes 
occurring. It’s the lack of 
readiness that leaves me 
quaking. 

Liat Collins is editor of the International 

Jerusalem Post. 

See a related story on page 48.

guest column

Israel — A Clean Bill of Health!

insight

H

ealth Tech has 
been expanding 
significantly in 
Israel, making it one of 
the startup nation’s fastest 
growing 
sectors, a 
boost that was 
aided by the 
increased and 
immediate 
demand for 
solutions 
during the 
COVID-19 crisis. 
The year 2022 was an 
impressive time for life 
sciences in Israel, with more 
than 1,800 companies and 
approximately $5 billion of 
investment. 
The sector has been 
addressing numerous 
consumer health challenges, 
including cognitive and 
mental health, telemedicine 
and remote monitoring, 
sleep management, senior 
care, chronic disease 
management, home 
diagnostics and screening, 
and medication and pain 
management.
In 2018, the Israeli 
Government launched a 
five-year program known 
as the National Program 

for Promoting the Digital 
Health Field, at a cost of 
almost 1 billion shekels. 
As part of the initiative, 
the Ministry of Health, the 
Israel Innovation Authority 
and the National Digital 
Health Plan joined forces 
in 2022 and selected 19 
programs to participate in a 
new health project to assist 
Israeli hospitals, HMOs and 
health organizations develop 
their R&D infrastructure 
in partnerships with 
health tech companies and 
startups.
The combination of 
both the Startup Nation’s 
human capital along with 
data accessibility in the 
Israel health system are 
major contributing factors 
for such collaboration. 
The variety of programs, 
selected from many of 
Israel’s leading hospitals and 
research institutes, include 
digital infrastructure 
of clinical testing, 
infrastructure in the area 
of digital pathology, digital 
infrastructure for clinical 
tests, videos of endoscopies, 
testing grounds for 
smart hospitalization at 
the patients home and 

collaboration of data from 
hospital and research 
communities.

ISRAEL IS BIG SOURCE 
OF MEDICAL DATA
There are numerous fac-
tors that contribute to the 
thriving health sector, but 
Israel’s unique healthcare 
system is a major player. By 
law, Israelis must register 
for mandatory health cover-
age through one of its four 
HMOs and as a result, 100% 
of Israel’s citizens are moni-
tored from cradle to grave. 
 Insurers, providers, phy-
sicians, hospitals, clinics, 
emergency services and 
even pharmacies are syn-
chronized and managed by 
a centralized, completely 
digitized functioning sys-
tem that has its medical 
data stored and accessible 
for research. This in turn 
makes Israel fertile ground 
for companies working on 
data-driven solutions. 

Naomi Miller is the Michigan 

Israel Business Accelerator (MIBA) 

Director of Israel Partnerships, and 

Federation’s Director of Missions 

and Exchanges. This was first 

published in the MIBA newsletter.

Naomi Miller

Liat Collins
Jerusalem 
Post

Earthquake is a
Warning to Israel

