Inside Israel's Coronavirus War Room

Mandate

 

The initiative, concentrated at top-10 global hospital system Sheba Medical Center, has identified six specific priorities, and is leveraging military-like precision and speed to execute.

 

Why It’s Important

 

Israel has a three-week lead over other countries, and has already identified, vetted, tested and certified solutions that should be considered in the U.S.

 

Our Objective

 

AGP’s unique place in the US-Israel ecosystem, coupled with our relationships inside the Israeli Defense and Healthcare industry, has given us insight into this critical initiative. We share this information with the sole purpose of helping Israel, the U.S. and the rest of the world address this pandemic. AGP has no investment nor economic stake in any of the businesses mentioned here.

 

INSIDE ISRAEL’S EFFECTIVE RESPONSE TO THE CRISIS

 

The State of Israel has recruited the entire Defense, Intelligence, Innovation, and Healthcare sectors to provide immediate solutions to the COVID-19 crisis. The effort is breathtaking in its speed and multidisciplinary approach, and is part of the reason why Israel has been ranked Number 1 in the Coronavirus Health Safety Countries Ranking.

 

Here are the key components of the cross-functional initiative, with specific recommendations to follow:

 

Who is involved?

 

Led by one of Israel’s top hospitals, Sheba Medical Center, the initiative includes a core team of nearly 200 people from a variety of agencies, including governmental, nonprofit, and private sector entities. Among the organizations involved:

• Mossad, the national intelligence agency of Israel;

• Israel’s Weapons Development and Technology Infrastructure Administration (known as Mafat);

• $3.7 billion defense contractor Israel Aerospace Industries (which built the radars for Iron Dome);

• Israeli Defense Forces’ reconnaissance and intelligence unit Sayeret Maktal (also known as Unit 269);

• Sheba Medical Center, a Newsweek “Top 10 Hospitals in the World,” and other Israeli hospital systems.

 

Where is it located?

 

The COVID-19 activity is concentrated in Sheba Medical Center’s campus in Tel Hashomer, Israel. The largest hospital in the Middle East, Sheba has long been known as a system focused on advanced and emerging technologies, with its “ARC innovation hub” focused on telemedicine, precision medicine, AI, and more; Newsweek just ranked Sheba as the ninth best hospital in the world. 

 

What is the focus?

 

Top priorities at the cross-functional COVID-19 war room:

• Acquiring equipment globally (e.g., respirators);

• Identifying global production capacity;

• Testing new technologies and solutions;

• Shortening their time to market (e.g., certifying them);

• Repurposing existing defense and intelligence IP;

• Implementing and training on solutions above.

 

Summary and Solutions.

 

Due to the efforts above, Israel has a three-week lead over most Western countries, and has already identified, vetted, tested and certified solutions that should be considered in the U.S. and other markets. 

 

We are providing information on three of those solutions. Again, our goal is to help the U.S. and the rest of the world address this pandemic; AGP has no investment nor economic stake in any of the businesses mentioned here: