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Israeli medical IT mission checks potential local ties
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BY: DOUGLAS J. GUTH Senior Staff Reporter
During his State of the Union address Jan. 23, President George W. Bush called for greater use of electronic medical records and other healthcare information technology (IT) as part of a larger healthcare plan.
Talk about timing!
Fourteen Israeli medical information technology companies visited the Northeast Ohio last week for a four-day trade mission to Cleveland and Akron. The companies were looking to sell their electronic health record, data management, medical information, wireless diagnostic, medical and emergency training systems to health-care providers here. Some of the firms scouted the region as a possible U.S. home for their operations.
The weeklong program included presentations in Akron, Cleveland and Beachwood. Participating Israeli companies included later- stage or fully-developed firms seeking access to the U.S. market.
The ultimate goal is to bring this cutting edge technology to Northeast Ohio, said Howard Gudell, principal of SGI Global Business Advisors, a local economic development consulting firm that helped organize the mission.
While the Israelis left without inking any deals, Gudell was encouraged by the level of interest shown by regional health-care providers. Israeli delegates met with top officials from area hospitals, medical and research institutions, healthcare providers, venture capital organizations, insurance companies and others involved in medical IT products and solutions.
SGI organized the mission jointly with the Israel Export and International Co-operation Institute (IEICI), with support from the Israel Trade and Investment Center and the Israel Life Sciences Association (ILSA).
David Furst, director of life sciences for IEICI, called the mission “merely an introduction” between medical information technology firms looking for investment opportunities and local hospitals, universities and government officials.
Some Israeli companies are looking to open an office stateside; others only want to test their products here.
Local government and business leaders hope to persuade these companies that the Akron-Cleveland market is an ideal region to locate to because of its concentration of hospitals, universities and manufacturing strengths in polymers and advanced materials.
Israeli companies were “impressed” with the region’s willingness to invest in bioscience and health care, said Furst. Local officials were similarly wowed by the Israelis’ expertise:
• Despite political scandals and its recent war in Lebanon, Israel is able to support 900 life-science companies, more than half of which are developing or making medical devices; 19% are involved in biotechnology.
• Israel has the highest number of scientists and engineers per capita in the world and boasts the highest rate of start-up companies outside of the U.S.
Medical IT covers a range of products and services that help hospitals organize, share and transmit administrative and diagnostic information. Ohio is lagging behind neighboring states n including Kentucky and West Virginia n in development of an electronic health information sharing system, according to a report by the Health Policy Institute of Ohio.
Now that contact has been made between regional healthcare providers and Israeli IT firms, the next step is to follow up. A second round of meetings is in the offing between at least one Israeli firm and a Northeast Ohio hospital, reported Furst.
“This is a journey,” he stressed. “Nothing is going to happen overnight.”
The journey was fruitful for Talor Sax, director of healthcare IT for eWave, an Israeli company which designs software for electronic medical records (EMR). Sax was struck by Northeast Ohio’s bioscience infrastructure as well as a large Jewish community that is supportive of Israel.
Over the last several years, President Bush has been pushing for the implementation of EMR to help bring down U.S. medical costs and improve care. Israel’s national health funds have been providing such a “paperless office” for a decade, said Sax. Patients can view medical records, such as blood test results, via the Internet.
EWave is a privately-owned company with offices in New York City and Brazil. Sax traveled to Northeast Ohio with two goals n to raise capital and expand his company’s U.S. presence.
“The EMR market is huge,” remarked Sax, who spoke to the CJN at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Independence, where part of the mission was held. “It’s a difficult market to penetrate and very expensive.”
DbMotion Ltd., a medical informatics company based in Ra’anana, has experience building regional health information networks in Israel. Clalit Health Services, Israel’s largest healthcare organization, used dbMotion to link healthcare providers at Israeli hospitals, clinics, pharmacies, labs and imaging centers.
The system puts clinical information at the fingertips of caregivers within a few seconds, said Dr. Ran Goshen, dbMotion’s chief medical officer.
DbMotion recently established a division in Atlanta. The company also announced an $84 million initiative with The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center that will integrate data from disparate IT systems within the network’s 19 hospitals and 400 ambulatory care sites.
Goshen would consider helping build a world-class healthcare IT infrastructure here. Last year, dbMotion put in an unsuccessful bid with The Cleveland Clinic and other major Ohio hospitals to develop a prototype for a national healthcare information network.
While in Cleveland, Goshen met with members of NEO RHIO, made up of 10 Northeast Ohio hospital systems, including University Hospitals and The Cleveland Clinic. NEO RHIO is working to create a program for sharing patient information electronically between health care systems.
Goshen didn’t expect to leave Cleveland with any deals. DbMotion is an established company with no need to “pitch and buy,” he said. However, the company’s chief medical officer wouldn’t have come to Cleveland if he weren’t serious about making a deal somewhere down the road.
“We’ll go home knowing we’ve had serious talks (with hospitals) in Northeast Ohio,” Goshen added.
When it comes to bioscience, Ohio “gets it,” Ohio Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher told the Israeli visitors during the mission’s opening keynote address Jan. 22. “We have become a market for research and discovery and commercialization.”
Ohio is home to 775 bioscience operations. Local bioscience accelerator BioEnterprise Corp. said that Ohio companies garnered $113.9 million in venture capital investment last year, which ranks third in the Midwest to Minnesota.
In addition, the Third Frontier Project will invest $1.6 billion over the next 10 years to build research facilities and support early-stage capital formation within the state, said Fisher.
CogniFit is an early-stage Israeli outfit that develops software providing brain exercises for seniors. Yossi Mazel, CogniFit’s vice president of sales and marketing, believes the market for the company’s MindFit software will grow alongside America’s aging baby boomer population.
Mazel planned to meet with officials from Summa Health System, which has facilities throughout the region. He also hoped to meet corporate CEOs who may be interested in offering MindFit to their employees.
“I’m impressed with the potential here,” Mazel noted.
Last week’s IT mission was a follow-up to several local bioscience missions to and from Israel. Last year, for example, Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic led a trade mission to Israel that included representatives of 21 public and private Akron-area institutions.
The scope of this latest mission is unprecedented, said SGI’s Gudell.
“I’m very happy with how this (mission) came off,” he added. “It showed Northeast Ohio as a terrific place to do business, attract investment, and create jobs. I expect more missions of this caliber to come. ”
dguth@cjn.org
Talk about timing!
Fourteen Israeli medical information technology companies visited the Northeast Ohio last week for a four-day trade mission to Cleveland and Akron. The companies were looking to sell their electronic health record, data management, medical information, wireless diagnostic, medical and emergency training systems to health-care providers here. Some of the firms scouted the region as a possible U.S. home for their operations.
The weeklong program included presentations in Akron, Cleveland and Beachwood. Participating Israeli companies included later- stage or fully-developed firms seeking access to the U.S. market.
The ultimate goal is to bring this cutting edge technology to Northeast Ohio, said Howard Gudell, principal of SGI Global Business Advisors, a local economic development consulting firm that helped organize the mission.
While the Israelis left without inking any deals, Gudell was encouraged by the level of interest shown by regional health-care providers. Israeli delegates met with top officials from area hospitals, medical and research institutions, healthcare providers, venture capital organizations, insurance companies and others involved in medical IT products and solutions.
SGI organized the mission jointly with the Israel Export and International Co-operation Institute (IEICI), with support from the Israel Trade and Investment Center and the Israel Life Sciences Association (ILSA).
David Furst, director of life sciences for IEICI, called the mission “merely an introduction” between medical information technology firms looking for investment opportunities and local hospitals, universities and government officials.
Some Israeli companies are looking to open an office stateside; others only want to test their products here.
Local government and business leaders hope to persuade these companies that the Akron-Cleveland market is an ideal region to locate to because of its concentration of hospitals, universities and manufacturing strengths in polymers and advanced materials.
Israeli companies were “impressed” with the region’s willingness to invest in bioscience and health care, said Furst. Local officials were similarly wowed by the Israelis’ expertise:
• Despite political scandals and its recent war in Lebanon, Israel is able to support 900 life-science companies, more than half of which are developing or making medical devices; 19% are involved in biotechnology.
• Israel has the highest number of scientists and engineers per capita in the world and boasts the highest rate of start-up companies outside of the U.S.
Medical IT covers a range of products and services that help hospitals organize, share and transmit administrative and diagnostic information. Ohio is lagging behind neighboring states n including Kentucky and West Virginia n in development of an electronic health information sharing system, according to a report by the Health Policy Institute of Ohio.
Now that contact has been made between regional healthcare providers and Israeli IT firms, the next step is to follow up. A second round of meetings is in the offing between at least one Israeli firm and a Northeast Ohio hospital, reported Furst.
“This is a journey,” he stressed. “Nothing is going to happen overnight.”
The journey was fruitful for Talor Sax, director of healthcare IT for eWave, an Israeli company which designs software for electronic medical records (EMR). Sax was struck by Northeast Ohio’s bioscience infrastructure as well as a large Jewish community that is supportive of Israel.
Over the last several years, President Bush has been pushing for the implementation of EMR to help bring down U.S. medical costs and improve care. Israel’s national health funds have been providing such a “paperless office” for a decade, said Sax. Patients can view medical records, such as blood test results, via the Internet.
EWave is a privately-owned company with offices in New York City and Brazil. Sax traveled to Northeast Ohio with two goals n to raise capital and expand his company’s U.S. presence.
“The EMR market is huge,” remarked Sax, who spoke to the CJN at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Independence, where part of the mission was held. “It’s a difficult market to penetrate and very expensive.”
DbMotion Ltd., a medical informatics company based in Ra’anana, has experience building regional health information networks in Israel. Clalit Health Services, Israel’s largest healthcare organization, used dbMotion to link healthcare providers at Israeli hospitals, clinics, pharmacies, labs and imaging centers.
The system puts clinical information at the fingertips of caregivers within a few seconds, said Dr. Ran Goshen, dbMotion’s chief medical officer.
DbMotion recently established a division in Atlanta. The company also announced an $84 million initiative with The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center that will integrate data from disparate IT systems within the network’s 19 hospitals and 400 ambulatory care sites.
Goshen would consider helping build a world-class healthcare IT infrastructure here. Last year, dbMotion put in an unsuccessful bid with The Cleveland Clinic and other major Ohio hospitals to develop a prototype for a national healthcare information network.
While in Cleveland, Goshen met with members of NEO RHIO, made up of 10 Northeast Ohio hospital systems, including University Hospitals and The Cleveland Clinic. NEO RHIO is working to create a program for sharing patient information electronically between health care systems.
Goshen didn’t expect to leave Cleveland with any deals. DbMotion is an established company with no need to “pitch and buy,” he said. However, the company’s chief medical officer wouldn’t have come to Cleveland if he weren’t serious about making a deal somewhere down the road.
“We’ll go home knowing we’ve had serious talks (with hospitals) in Northeast Ohio,” Goshen added.
When it comes to bioscience, Ohio “gets it,” Ohio Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher told the Israeli visitors during the mission’s opening keynote address Jan. 22. “We have become a market for research and discovery and commercialization.”
Ohio is home to 775 bioscience operations. Local bioscience accelerator BioEnterprise Corp. said that Ohio companies garnered $113.9 million in venture capital investment last year, which ranks third in the Midwest to Minnesota.
In addition, the Third Frontier Project will invest $1.6 billion over the next 10 years to build research facilities and support early-stage capital formation within the state, said Fisher.
CogniFit is an early-stage Israeli outfit that develops software providing brain exercises for seniors. Yossi Mazel, CogniFit’s vice president of sales and marketing, believes the market for the company’s MindFit software will grow alongside America’s aging baby boomer population.
Mazel planned to meet with officials from Summa Health System, which has facilities throughout the region. He also hoped to meet corporate CEOs who may be interested in offering MindFit to their employees.
“I’m impressed with the potential here,” Mazel noted.
Last week’s IT mission was a follow-up to several local bioscience missions to and from Israel. Last year, for example, Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic led a trade mission to Israel that included representatives of 21 public and private Akron-area institutions.
The scope of this latest mission is unprecedented, said SGI’s Gudell.
“I’m very happy with how this (mission) came off,” he added. “It showed Northeast Ohio as a terrific place to do business, attract investment, and create jobs. I expect more missions of this caliber to come. ”
dguth@cjn.org
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