Pittsburgh-based Allegheny Health Network plans to pilot Israeli healthcare startups under an agreement with the Israel Innovation Authority signed July 7.
The 14-hospital system, a subsidiary of Highmark Health, will offer access to its facilities, clinical and administrative staff, IT assistance, research assistance and consulting services, as well as the possibility of seed funding. Applications will open up to Israeli companies once the collaboration finalizes later this year.
"We're excited to partner with the Israel Innovation Authority to help cultivate some of their country's brightest healthcare startups, and we're thrilled to work with their entrepreneurs as they refine, test and scale innovative new technologies that may one day benefit patients and medical providers here in Pittsburgh, and around the world," said Tariq Cheema, MD, medical director of the AHN Research Institute, in a July 7 news release.
Israel is a hotbed of healthcare innovation, with its Innovation Authority having also partnered with Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic, Philadelphia-based Jefferson Health and Hartford (Conn.) HealthCare. Coral Gables-based Baptist Health South Florida also recently started a similar program with Israel's Sheba Medical Center.
Allegheny Health Network also recently formalized agreements with international startups Splendo Health (Netherlands) and AdipoPharma (France) to tap into office and lab space and professional resources at AHN Suburban, a former hospital turned innovation center in Bellevue, Pa.