The Future is Already Here: Rambam Explores Prestigious Collaboration for Diagnoses via International Database Rambam is exploring participation in an exciting international project spearheaded by Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, one of the world’s leading health care institutions. The project involves using cutting edge science, technology, analytics, and an international database for rapid detection and treatment of disease. To promote this research collaboration, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry for Haifa and the North initiated a meeting at Rambam Health Care Campus.
Professor Joel Dudley, Associate Professor of Genetics and Genomic Sciences at Mount Sinai, recently came to Haifa to attend a meeting on the Future of Medicine, sponsored by the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. Professor Dudley is Director of the Institute for Next Generation Healthcare, a unique research center seeking to revolutionize the future of medical care via research involving the patient’s genetic data. During his visit, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry for Haifa and the North organized a meeting with Rambam Health Care Campus to explore areas of research cooperation between the two institutes. Professor Dudley met with Professor Rafi Beyar the Director and CEO of Rambam; Dr. Hagit Baris-Feldman, Director of Rambam’s Genetics Institute, attorney Ronya Rubinstein, Director of the R&D Unit, and Dr. Nadav Ben Haim, CEO of Rambam MedTech, Ltd.—the hospital’s technology transfer company. Professor Dudley presented the innovative project he is leading, which involves sweeping changes in the diagnosis of disease and treatment of patients. A patient arriving at a medical facility would be examined not only for his initial complaint. A technologically advanced sensor system would be connected to the patient for evaluation of multiple biological systems, including the patient’s genetic system. Data would then be processed and analyzed based on the patient’s own information as well as that of patient data stored in an international database. Instead of spending weeks, or even months, visiting different physicians in the quest to identify the cause and treatement for the patient’s medical condition, they would receive a precise diagnosis and treatment plan within a matter of hours. A laboratory like this—the first of its kind in the world—is already in operation in Mount Sinai’s research department. Professor Beyar and Dr. Baris-Feldman expressed great interest in participating in this international research project and both groups are currently exploring collaborative opportunities. Accompanying Professor Dudley at the Rambam meeting was Moshe Zurich, Assistant to the President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry for Haifa and the North. Zurich said that the Chamber would be honored to be a part of this exciting collaboration and to contribute to its ongoing success. Rambam's visionary physician scientists have already brought many vital discoveries and health care innovations to Israel and the world. Rambam’s research programs encompass a wide array of clinical applications and are characterized by an integrative, multi-disciplinary approach to curing disease. Rambam’s unsurpassed commitment to supporting employee-initiated research and innovation has led to several noteworthy accomplishments, including: creation of the Clinical Research Institute at Rambam Clinical Research Institute at Rambam (CRIR); establishment Rambam MedTech, which facilitated, together with Medtronic, IBM, and Pitango, the opening of Haifa’s digital medicine incubator—MindUP; and a unique cooperation between Rambam, University of Haifa, and the Technion for construction of a Health Discovery Tower—an advanced medical research institute currently being constructed on Rambam's west campus.
Pictured: Professor Rafi Beyar (bottom left) with Professor Dudley (top right) during their meeting. Photo Credit: The Chamber of Commerce and Industry for Haifa and the North