The Israel Innovation Authority and Philadelphia-based Thomas Jefferson University will apportion $1 million to four Israeli startups to develop, test and pilot medical technologies, services and devices for unmet needs.

The Jefferson Israel Center opened in Jerusalem in June 2018 as a vehicle for fostering global healthcare innovation and education initiatives.

Agamon Technologies, ART Medical, Seegnal and Somatix will be able to access Jefferson Health’s physicians and other staff across its hospitals, outpatient and urgent-care sites and rehabilitation facilities.

Agamon Technologies uses artificial intelligence to find critical data in unstructured medical reports, alert physicians based on the severity of the results, and communicate complex medical language to patients in simple terms.

ART Medical makes a smART+ platform that aims to prevent life-threatening hospital-acquired complications that affect ICU patients, such as ventilator-associated events, pneumonia, malnutrition and acute kidney injury. The platform also monitors and analyzes gastric reflux, metabolic rate, feeding efficiency, urine output and feeding tube positioning.

Seegnal is a patient-specific digital platform to prevent drug-related problems at the point of care. The joint IIA-TJU project will focus on integrating Seegnal into clinicians’ workflow within the largest US-based electronic medical record (EPIC), while developing the world’s first Pharmacogenetic Risk Indicator.

Somatix developed SafeBeing, an AI-based remote patient monitoring system using patented gesture detection technology to analyze real-time data and provide actionable clinical insights, such as risk factors for adverse events. The pilot program will focus on patients at highest risk for readmission and for monitoring Covid-19 patients.

“The winning projects will allow the medical system in Israel, the USA and even globally to better sift through multitudes of medical data and provide caregivers with a real-time understanding of all pertinent medical information to allow them to provide the appropriate and personalized treatment for each patient either at home or at the medical facility,” said Dr. Ami Appelbaum, chairman of the Israel Innovation Authority and Chief Scientist at the Israeli Ministry of Finance and Industry.

The IIA is beginning similar collaborations with the Mayo Clinic and Hartford Healthcare in the US, and the Charité – Universitätsmedizin in Berlin.