India partnering with Israel to adopt digital, AI solutions in healthcare

PillCam, a tiny capsule that travels inside the body, capturing images and information about the patient’s digestive tract, has changed the world of gastrointestinal diagnostics. Developed by Israeli inventor Gavriel Iddan and officially released in 2001, the PillCam SB video capsule has since been used nearly 1.5 million times by more than 5,000 medical facilities in over 75 countries. It has established wireless capsule endoscopy as the global standard for small bowel diagnostics.
 
Given Imaging, the company that sells PillCam SB, has profited enormously from it. “In 2010 alone, the company sold 221,300 capsules and reached an annual revenue of $157.8 million,” according to the European Patent Office.

 
Israel has other big healthcare inventions to its credit, including the heart stent and the recently developed electronic “nose” that can smell 17 diseases on a person’s breath — diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, tuberculosis, diabetes and lung cancer.
 

India already uses Israeli prowess in the fields of defence and agriculture (think drip irrigation). Now, it is showing a growing interest in Israel’s digital health solutions as well. Indian healthcare service providers are working on collaborative ideas with Israeli counterparts and smart digital startups.
 
Israeli startups have been building on the reputation created by inventors of CamPill and the heart stent to come up with innovative solutions in healthcare using fourth industrial revolution technologies. And a strong, government-backed healthcare system supports them in their efforts.

 
Israel offers universal healthcare to all its citizens through healthcare maintenance organisations (HMOs) that run hospitals, clinics, research institutes and also encourage innovation by promoting incubators and accelerators embedded with them.
 
Israel’s largest HMO, Clalit Health Services, owns and operates 1,500 primary care clinics and 14 hospitals, including 30 per cent of Israel’s hospital acute care beds. It employs nearly 35,000 doctors, nurses, pharmacists, paramedics, technicians, and administrators. The Clalit research institute also has data on over 4.5 million patients. This is the key advantage that Israeli HMOs have over others. They have maintained electronic medical records of patients since the 1990s.

 
As a result, Israel is able to use artificial intelligence (AI)-based solutions that depend heavily on digital data. “We are moving from reactive therapeutics to predictive, proactive and preventive care using artificial intelligence,” says Professor Ron Balicer, chief innovation officer and founding director of Clalit Research Institute in Tel Aviv. “Using AI-based models, we can predict with high accuracy who will have a stroke and who will have osteoporosis,” he adds. A collaboration with an imaging company allowed Clalit to increase osteoporosis detection by 50 per cent, says Balicer.
 
Another HMO, Hadassah Medical Organisation in Jerusalem, has done pioneering work in digital health. It runs an accelerator, venture fund, co-working space and creates holding companies for medical innovators. Its  technology transfer company, Hadasit, has helped create marketable solutions such as  Cordio that could have a great impact in emerging markets like India.

 
Cordio provides a ground-breaking solution for monitoring patients with chronic heart ailments by recording the voice of the patient into a smartphone app. It uses an AI-based algorithm that analyses the voice and enables remote monitoring of patients. “Hadassah allows startups and innovators to work with the hospital system to try and test new ideas,” says Ariel Rabin, VP, Business Development Medical Devices and Digital Health at Hadasit. 
 
Many of these companies are now working on pilot projects in India. The insights gleaned from the Israel experience can be tweaked and customised for large scale deployment in India.

 
Some of Israel’s healthcare innovations are already helping Indian patients. HealthWatch Master Caution Device and Garment is a smart digital garment with 12-lead ECG monitoring capabilities. A person suffering from a cardiac ailment or one who has been discharged after a cardiac procedure can wear this garment and carry on with normal, day-to-day activities. There is a 4G SIM-card attached to the vest that transmits this ECG data via the cloud to the cardiologist. The patient can be monitored remotely in real time.
 
“The first phase of its use was a clinical trial done at Sir H.N. Reliance Foundation Hospital and Research Centre,” says Rishit Agrawal, co-founder, Nuveos Tech, which introduced HealthWatch in India. Three months after the trial began in December 2018, doctors are now satisfied with it says Agrawal, adding that another trial is now running at Medanta Medicity Hospital, Gurgaon.

Another example of Israeli-Indian co-operation in the health sector is Heramed, which is a smartphone-based foetal heart rate monitor. Developed in Israel, this device will be available in the Indian market after getting regulatory approvals. Heramed is supported by the Israel Innovation Authority (IIA). Apollo Hospitals has partnered with Israel’s Zebra Medical Vision to use AI for medical imaging. Global Innovation and Technology Alliance (GITA), on behalf of the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, and IIA, on behalf of the Government of Israel, are supporting the project.
 
At the recent MedInIsrael conference in Tel Aviv, a number of companies expressed their interest in moving their focus from US and Europe to India. The expanding cooperation between the governments of Israel and India will see deeper focus on digital healthcare. And India’s plan for universal healthcare and emphasis on AI for all programmes will underpin its collaboration with Israeli companies.