Assuta reveals 10 Israeli Startups to Join “Rise With US” to Take Their Solutions Global

TEL AVIV, June 28, 2023: Rise, Assuta Medical Centers’ innovation arm, named 10 startups that have been selected to participate in the second cohort of “RISE with US,” a unique program connecting them to the global healthcare market, with a focus on the American market. The selected startups are focused on developing digital health solutions based on artificial intelligence and big data.

The program was established last year in collaboration with Philadelphia’s University City Science Center and has grown this year with the addition of Start-Up Nation Central (SNC), a non-profit organization that connects Israeli innovation to the world. Tech giants AWS and Nvidia are supporting the program along with venture capital funds of LionBird and eHealth Ventures and will all together provide the companies with tools and connections needed for successful global market penetration.

111 companies applied for the second cohort of the program, but only 10 were accepted. The startups selected are: Aisap, SpotitEarly, HealthEI, BeCare, Patient2Patient, EFA, Nervio, Qlog, Agamon Health and GaitBetter.

The cohort is guided by a team of business, technology and clinical experts who have had success in breaking into the global market and specifically in the United States. Areas of action will include the commercialization and implementation of solutions in the health system, various regulatory compliance needs and building scalable healthcare solutions. The peak of the program is its fourth and final week, which takes place in the US, and where companies receive firsthand interactions and feedback with the local market. They will meet with potential investors, clients and partners in Israel and the US.

Participants will have direct access to Assuta Medical Centers and receive tailored clinical guidance from physicians who are leaders in their respective fields. Participants will also receive access to the expansive network of contacts of the University City Science Center, which has 50 years of experience in implementing technologies in foreign countries, direct access to hospitals, access to the Angel Capital Association, leading insurers and academic institutions in the Philadelphia area. Start-Up Nation Central will support the global outreach of the program and support with relevant professional information with all companies that applied for the program.

CEO of Assuta Medical Centers, Gidi Leshetz said: “Assuta constantly strives to lead and implement advanced medical technologies together with groundbreaking medical R&D partners. The RISE with US program enables Assuta to take part in designing the future of medicine, and continuing carrying the flag of quality of care, professionalism and humane healthcare service.”

Head of RISE, Daniel Rabina, said: “In the post- Covid world, healthcare systems are rapidly changing and investors are demanding entrepreneurs to prove their product value very early on in their development cycle. This requires medical startups today more than before, to gain an intimate understanding of the needs and pains of their specific target market. Through this program, Assuta helps leading medical startups succeed in these challenging times, and ultimately touching the lives of patients, and to promote care and medicine at Assuta and all over the world.”

Start-Up Nation Central CEO, Avi Hasson: “This partnership is part of our ongoing effort to develop the health tech sector in Israel, with an emphasis on international connections and the creation of strategic opportunities for developing innovative companies from Israel. The Israeli ecosystem has a wide range of technologies that can solve global challenges and we at Start-Up Nation Central are proud to team up with Assuta, and together to strengthen and create global opportunities for innovative Israeli companies.”

The following startups are participating in the 2023 cohort:

1. Aisap (https://www.aisap.ai/) The company has developed an artificial intelligence and deep-learning based platform to detect diseases and analyze findings found in point of care ultrasound examinations. Aisap empowers clinicians using ultrasound by guiding them to capture quality images in real-time, and giving immediate accurate analysis based on advanced image processing and diagnosing findings and diseases in multiple organs – in a way that improves clinical outcomes and health system efficiency. The company’s main product, AISAP POCAD™, recently concluded clinical trials with tens of thousands of test subjects in Israel and in North America. The company was founded in 2022 by a team of ex-IDF 8200 officers, complemented by senior physicians with extensive clinical and academic expertise – Adiel Am-Shalom, CEO and founding partner, Prof. Ehud Raanani, a founding partner, Prof. Robert Klempfner, CMO and founding partner. The company has offices in Israel and employs 18 people.
2. SpotitEarly (http://www.spotitearly.com ) develops an early detection screening test for various kinds of cancer through testing of exhaled breath. The company’s ability is based on canines’ scientifically proven capability to identify cancerous scent signatures in exhaled breath samples. The unique technology the company is developing will be able to supply accurate responses to wide populations, all from a lab combining standards and quality parameters and integrating technology with biological sensors – canines. The company’s vision is to create a screening test which will be affordable, easy to use and precise in order to increase adoption of screening tests that can detect various cancers at early stages. The company was founded in 2020 by a team of seasoned entrepreneurs and army veterans who served in the canine unit and the technological arm of the Intelligence Corps – Chairman Roi Ofir, CEO Ariel Ben Dayan, COO Udi Bobrovsky and CSO Ohad Sharon. The company is located in northern Emek Hefer, employs 30 people and raised $12m .
3. HealthEi (https://www.healthei.io) is a company developing a patient-faced medical resource, revolutionizing the way health information is delivered and shared to help bridge critical communication gaps to drive patient participation and advance health equity, reducing unnecessary medical complications, risks and costs.

Using state-of-the-art capabilities, HealthEi transforms ‘standard’ medical content patients receive and access and personalizes it according to each person’s unique medical history, social factors, and real-time data, providing patients with an evidence-based solution that improves their communication with health providers and understanding, ensuring patient continuity of care. The company was established in 2023 by Liat Zussman Cana, Co-founder & CEO, Dr. Asher Taragin, CMO, and Avishai Zussman, Co-founder & CPO. The company is based in Jerusalem and employs 5 people.

4. BeCare develops an artificial-intelligence based system for reducing physician’s burden. This challenge is especially significant when meeting patients with chronic illnesses, as clinicians need to integrate relevant information from a range of sources, then draw a picture related to the patient’s medical history and current reported state – and merge it all to an effective treatment course. The company was founded in 2023 by CEO Roy Malka, CBO Noa Silberklang, CMO Ron Cialic and CIO Steve Thompson. The company operates from Binyamina and employs 6 people.
5. Patient2Patient. Patient2Patient helps insurers and medical organizations increase the effectiveness of care and reduce costs of medical treatment of patients with complex chronic ailments, like cardiac failures. By using artificial intelligence tools, the platform puts together a personal support and accompaniment plan for each patient, based on the experiences of other patients, in order to empower the patients and increase their compliance with doctors’ orders for a better medical journey. Our philosophy, “we’ve been there, we went through this, let’s talk” increases trust by patients and creates transparency, and this improves the patients’ participation in managing the disease, while decreasing the total cost of care. The company was founded in 2023 by Asaf Tidhar, Co-Founder and CEO, and by Amir Luzon, Co-Founder and Chief of Operation and Product Officer. The company operates from Tel Aviv.

For the second round of the program, companies were selected from the portfolio of eHealth Ventures VC fund, with Maccabi Health Services in a unique setting. Assuta is part of the Maccabi Group and this setting reflects the powerful ecosystem of innovation entities in the group working together for advances in medicine.

These are the 5 eHealth portfolio companies:

1. EFA develops and manufactures its main product RevDX based on three main disciplines: microscopic optics, microfluid chip and AI, all together in a portable medical product that can be used anywhere to perform several medical analyses. The first application is a complete blood count including the five different kinds of white platelets, hemoglobin, red line and 19 other parameters. The device is intended for the point-of-care community, and can be used wherever the patient is found (including their home). Using the device is simple and results are given within a few minutes. Physicians will be able to independently decide whether patients (or their blood) need to be sent out for additional testing, or not. The company is completing its A series funding, raising $15 million. The company was founded in 2017 by CEO Yoel Ezra, VP marketing and business development Amir Luvashevsky. It operates from Caesarea and employs 13 people.
2. Nervio is developing a unique solution for neurophysiological monitoring that will reduce dependence on human experts for neurophysiological monitoring, by converting it to artificial intelligence. This removes some cost obstacles and the difficulty in finding personnel, and enables neurophysiological monitoring of every operating theater in the world. Background: in-operation neurophysiological monitoring is the only tool to assess neurological functionality during an operation and makes possible to alert the surgeon on irregular neural incidents in real time. The actual monitoring is done by an expert neurophysiologist – a limited resource with low availability and high costs. Accordingly, only 20% of relevant operations in the world are monitored and when they are monitored, the additional costs reach an average of $2500 per operation. The company has raised $3 million, mainly from strategic investors. The company was established in 2020 by Nir Zarchi – director of product and innovation and founding partner, and Dr. Omer Zarchi – clinical scientific director, founding partner. Ariel Weinstein is the CEO and it operates from Misgav employing 12 people.
3. Qlog supplies hospitals and healthcare systems a system that redefines communications channels with the employees, and enables information to stream in both directions, creating insights for the improvement of processes based on big data. The system is already implemented in dozens of hospitals in Israel and Europe and supplies real time location services, and is a step up in infrastructure with no additional cost. The system improves safety and quality standards by up to 90%, reduces stress in the team by up to 80%, and improves workforce retention. It also adds 45% more efficiency to the use of medical equipment. The company has so far raised $2.5 million. The company was established in 2017 by Dr. Amit Lehava, CEO. It operates from Binyamina and Manchester and employs 23 people.
4. Agamon Health redefines the process of handling radiology patients through an innovative automatic platform based on AI and Natural Linguistic Programming (NLP). This system is intended to deal with one of the most acute problems in the field of imaging – tracking the compliance with radiologists’ recommendations, that in 80% of cases are not adhered to. Agamon’s automatic system uses artificial intelligence to understand medical recommendations in text form, it organizes and crosses data from several sources and sends notifications to doctors and patients. The system was successfully implemented in leading institutions in the US, where it was proven as effective and doubled the number of patients following recommendations. The system also contributed to a rise in the revenue of the medical institutions and has an ROI of 10x. Until today the company raised $6 million and received grants from the Innovation Authority. The company was established in 2019 by Michal Meiri, CEO and Omri Sivan, CTO. It is active from Israel and Atlanta and employs 15 people.
5. GaitBetter is an evidence-based neurotherapeutic platform specifically designed for gait rehabilitation, fall prevention, and prediction of neurodegeneration diseases. By adding a semi-immersive virtual reality experience to existing treadmills, GaitBetter enables personalized motor-cognitive training that improves motor skills, enhances cognitive functions, and reduces falls. With more than 22 peer-reviewed publications including a 300 subjects randomized controlled trial published in The Lancet, used daily in more than 90 clinics and wellness centers in the USA and Israel, and treated over 6,000 patients to date, GaitBetter has demonstrated its cognitive-first modality. GaitBetter is an FDA-registered product, and is billed under existing CPT codes. Recently the AMA approved a new cat 3 CPT add-on code for the GaitBetter service to become effective on July 1st 2023. The company was established in 2017 by CEO Hilik Harari and VP Operations Idan Abukassis. It is based in Petah Tikva and Rockville, MD and employs 8 people.