With major gaps in the current health care system, some Israeli companies are steadily working towards using technology to create solutions, bringing attention to the ways technology can be used to fill those gaps.
One Israeli startup called StuffThatWorks is a data-based platform that connects patients seeking relief. With over 70% of people “googling” their symptoms, StuffThatWorks directly connects people with people. For the many who suffer from chronic illness, many of which don’t have known treatments, the platform reports and analyzes data from a broad spectrum of patients, highlighting treatments and trends that work, and turns it into numbers, charts and graphs. CEO Yael Elish, who was formerly chief product officer at Waze, was inspired by the idea that when millions of people share real-time information about traffic patterns, people can avoid traffic. Elish believes the same thing can work with health.
Another company leading the curve is Joy Ventures, a venture capital fund that invests in health technology which supports wellbeing. They have taken a specific interest in human emotions, which are “becoming more measurable and quantifiable,” writes Miri Polachek, Joy Ventures CEO, in a Fortune article. “From emotion-sensing robots to cars with sensors to digital wristbands, the field of emotion detection technologies is blossoming, with forecasters projecting that the market size will surge from $21.6 billion in 2019 to $56 billion by 2024.”
Another revolutionary discovery offers a quicker way to diagnose lung cancer, which is commonly uncovered at a late stage in patients. BodyVision is a software that serves as the missing link between the typical CT scan, bronchoscopy, and Xray which direct doctors to the cancerous spot, yet only 43% of the time can the small cancerous nodes be found. Because the CT and Xray are flat frames, the challenge is finding the small spot in a living and breathing lung. Body Vision software simply creates a way to expand the search and makes the small nodes easier to find. Since the product has been FDA approved in 2017, the rate has reached up to 85%.
From creating spaces for connection of the invisible diseases to measuring emotions to direct and improved cancer diagnosis, it is certain the Israeli mindset continues to close gaps and create solutions when it comes to taking advantage of using technology to better our health.
