Israel digital health database established to collect health data of over 100,000 people
Israel digital health database is aimed at collecting the medical records from the healthcare providers and centralize them into one place to provide better health services based on past health data.
In Israel, there are more than 400 digital health startups. The hospitals in Israel partner with many venture capitalists and incubators to revolutionize the health technology in this country. Healthcare start-ups such as Israel Advanced technology industries, Righthear, Pharmapool, Eshunt, TilTalk2me, Insulog, Allerguard are providing innovative eHealth solutions.
The Israeli government aims to revolutionize the healthcare niche. It plans to make Israel the global medical powerhouse of the world. With the help of over 100,000 volunteers, they aim to create a digital health database that could revolutionize the eHealth system.
Israel’s eHealth system aims to assist doctors to access their patients remotely by storing all medical information relating to the patient, digitally and provide treatment, based on the information stored on the internet.
The digital health database aims to collect the digital medical records from the Israeli healthcare providers and centralize them into one place. This unified database can aid in more than getting information about the patient, a massive revolution in the eHealth sector. Having a global medical database would make the medical history a secure asset to doctors around the world.
If successful, it could lead to astonishing results in ease of treatment and even disease prevention. Eli Groner, the director general of the prime minister’s office, said that this project is expected to launch at the end of 2018.
“The increasingly unsustainable costs of healthcare are driving the world to a more personalized and preventive healthcare model” is what Groner declared when asked about the reasons behind such a bold eHealth project.
The project drew heavy criticism though. Sceptics say that if medical data leaked to companies unrelated to the health industry, then everything can turn into a disaster. The announcement for the global medical database came close to Facebook’s failure to prevent data-mining firm Cambridge Analytica from amassing personal user data from their website. Groner replied to these criticisms by saying that “What we are trying to do is regulate the market in an effective way that will protect privacy, which will encourage research, which will serve as a growth driver for the economy.”
Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, said that Israel would invest over $280 million for this project. The aim is to get the digital medical files of 9 million residents in one single database.
The first step into having such a successful project is to take heavy privacy measures. Several layers of privacy are intended to add in the hopes that no data will leak to undesired or unauthorized companies.
Furthermore, Groner believes that the amount of human good this project can do will surpass the privacy issue. As assurance, the director general declared that “No country is as proficient at cyber protection as Israel.” As a part of India- Israel innovation bridge, these two countries have decided to come together to make a significant improvement in the health sector of these countries.
Israel, by collaborating with India aims to provide better treatment facilities for the people in this country. Israel’s cutting-edge eHealth technology and health database will assist people living in the remotest corners to get access to quality medical facilities.
Image credit: www.jordansc.com
