There is virtually no area of medicine to which Israeli devices have not made significant contributions - cardiology, genetics, neurology and ophthalmology are but a few of the sciences benefiting from advanced Israeli technology. Israeli scientists, universities and companies are working to benefit the global health system - from physician to patient to medical administrators and insurers.

Israeli medical and biotechnological innovations include state-of-the-art surgical lasers, fully computerized no-radiation diagnostic instrumentation for breast cancer, an intelligent medical sensor that can be used to track and direct instruments to an exact three-dimensional location in the heart or other organs via a real-time virtual image, the fully flexible waveguide fiber for endoscopic surgery, unique computerized monitoring systems for critical care patients, pain-relieving transcutaneous devices, a revolutionary autoclave design to combat AIDS and other infectious diseases and many more.

No Inventions Without Investors
Academic Research & Development
Government's Technological Efforts
Does it Work?
Meeting Ethical Standards
Focused Expansion
Biting into the Future
Smart Money
Erecting a Managerial Structure
Marketing Israel's Products
"Heart Knows No Borders"
Examples of Israeli Medical Innovations

No inventions without investors

The most important resource in Israel is its human capital, including the flood of Russian-speaking scientists, engineers and programmers, who immigrated in the 1990s from the former Soviet Union. Many of them excel in math, physics, material sciences and medical electronics.

In addition, over the years, close cooperation has developed between medical research institutions and industry. This cross-fertilization has bridged the once impenetrable gap between basic and applied science and has made it easier for innovative technology to arrive at your doctor’s office. Few today would argue against the rapidity of advancements by medical manufacturers, based on the most updated research and development that has taken place in the country’s universities and research institutes.

Academic Research and Development

Each of Israel’s universities and research institutes has established its own research authority. These authorities assist professors in finding, applying for and administering grants and funding for their research. Each has generated a commercial limb that also initiates investor searches, helps private launches, assists commercial exploitation of research by drafting and filing licensing agreements, actively guides technology transfer and encourages patenting of new discoveries before they are submitted to peer-reviewed journals, to prevent the current worry – “publish and perish.”

Thus these research and development enterprises give the universities a chance to profit from and reinvest the fruits of their research by working through subsidiary companies while at the same time increasing the potential for new development in industry. For instance, medicine and medical equipment are the dominant start-up sectors at most Israeli universities and at the same time provide the technological expertise for most of these industries.

Ben Gurion University of the Negev’s, Ben Gurion Negev Technologies and Applications Ltd., for example, offers support in both medicine and bioengineering. It has pioneered the Neuromedical Electrical Stimulation Systems Ltd. (NESS), a glove-like device that can stimulate movements in a paralyzed hand or arm. Another commercial innovation is the Savyon Diagnostics’ rapid diagnostics kit for fungal infections.

Bar-Ilan University’s Bar-Ilan Research and Development Co. Ltd. spawned Medis El Cell Scan an advanced electro-optical blood cell sorting device to diagnose and detect early stages of cancer.

Hadasit Medical Research Services and Development, an enterprise of the Hadassah Medical Organization Ltd., in Jerusalem, has facilitated innumerable licensing or joint ventures in cancer therapies, osteoporosis, diabetes, cardiovascular disorders, orthopedics, diagnostics, medical devices and laser technologies.

In 1966, The Technion – Israel Institute of Technology’s – Technion Research and Development Foundation, founded Elbit Ltd., as a start-up company, considered the original progenitor of the medical device industry in Israel. Today, it is a giant healthcare and diagnostics conglomerate with sales of 970 million $US annually.

Tel-Aviv University – Ramot, with its Rad-Ramot high-tech incubator in Tel Hashomer Hospital, has generated several start-up companies. The now well-established Orgenics Diagnostics Ltd., produces ultra-high sensitive and fast diagnostic kits, and recently merged with American giant, Selfcare Corp. Another younger success is Combact which has a unique technology for rapid bacterial analysis.

Established in 1959, Yeda Research and Development Ltd., of The Weizmann Institute of Science, pioneered the concept of pure research benefiting from its own applications. It has spawned thousands of successful medical technology initiatives.

Yissum Research Development Company Ltd., of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem was established in 1964. In 1997, it signed 130 contracts, half of them with companies abroad. One of its products is a tiny, biodegradable chip developed by the Faculty of Dental Medicine, which treats gum disease by slowly releasing chlorhexidine. It was acquired by the local conglomerate Israel Chemicals and is now valued at 140 million $US.

To avoid missing out on rapid developments across disciplines, and to keep from becoming too competitive with each other, the autonomous university research authorities formed an alliance, FURAD (Forum of University Research Authority Directors), that pools and strengthens their technological and administrative resources. FURAD helps to assure that the Israeli academic community responds to rapidly-evolving changes in the research funding environment, both in Israel and abroad, and stays in touch with the networks of regional and global partnerships (with the European Union, for example) and interdisciplinary research projects. Jointly, the Research Authorities maintain and update a comprehensive national database of Israeli academic research and development, lobby government ministries for funding, expand global partnerships, and contribute to and implement national scientific research policy.

The Government’s Technological Efforts

The government is also actively involved in the medical technological sector. Nearly half of the approximately 200 nascent technologies under development in government supported incubators are medical technologies, not to mention those in biotechnology and software.

Magnet, a program of the Chief Scientist of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, has a five-year budget of over 200 million $US to support carefully targeted generic technologies or pre-competitive concepts, such as electro-optics or biomedical diagnostics, by coordinating groups of academics and businesses.

Healthcare and medical technology especially electronics has been identified as the most promising growth sector by the Healthcare Department of the Israel Export Institute. Partner to making that possible is the business and marketing effort of the 24 American-Israel Chambers of Commerce, first created in 1953, and Associated in 1993, representing over 3,000 American business and professional members, based largely in Minnesota and in the Chicago and Boston areas.

Does it Work?

Growth of medical technology depends not only on insights and ideas, but on proof through rigorous testing for safety and efficacy. Speed, not haste, is the motto when weighing public health needs versus public health protection.

Testing of devices is controlled by the medical device assessment department in the Ministry of Health, which over the years, has adapted a process which corresponds with that of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (USFDA). This harmonization allows laboratory, animal and clinical (those involving human beings) studies conducted in Israel to qualify as proof for approval, as if they were conducted in the U.S. The result is a streamlined approval process and a shortcut to marketing Israeli medical technology in the U.S., making healthcare delivery more efficient and up-to-date. The USFDA recently modified its procedures to make the approval process more efficient by actively guiding inventors and researchers in formulating their testing protocols to meet USFDA licensing demands; thus, the focus was shifted from a test of the trials to a test of the products themselves.

In contrast, Israeli government regulations require only those medical devices which release radiation, contain components derived from animal sources, or are coronary stents, to have ministry approval for marketing in Israel. Expanded legislation to empower the Ministry of Health to examine and/or approve all medical devices is currently being formulated and is expected to be in effect by the turn of the century.

Meeting Ethical Standards

Israel’s system of ethical standards, established to meet international criteria following the Helsinki agreements, is exacting. Proposals to initiate clinical trials, for instance, must be reviewed by a system of ethics committees, which convene in every hospital and medical institute. Considerations are based on ethics, moral and religious implications and social impact, as well as on health and safety grounds. Examples of the complex questions the committees might ask could include: “Could a new contraceptive device be used to abort as well as prevent pregnancy?” or “How would technology to determine brain death – which often occurs before the heart stops beating – affect declaration of ‘the moment of death’ and thus, decisions about when organ donations may be made?”

Focused expansion

Technological growth is geometric, not linear, with one industry’s previous inventions spawning new developments in another. This trend comes into play, for example, with medical technologies which have profited from previous developments in the electronic defense industries. Opgal Medical Systems, a subsidiary of El-Op Electro-Optics Industries Ltd. in Nes Ziona, specializes in thermal imaging, remote sensing, lasers, and displays. Opgal Medical’s IVA-2000 Thermal Imaging System for cardiac surgery is based on thermal coronary angiography (TCA), a technology originally developed for military uses like night vision and heat-seeking surveillance. The improved accuracy in angiographic imaging, and in image storage improves decision-making in the surgical operating theater and benefits the entire health system, from physician (user), to patient (consumer), to medical administrators and insurers, and back to the patient (consumer). Medical insurance costs have been reduced because the number of re-do operations is significantly reduced: the system documents the procedure, reducing malpractice insurance; operating theaters are freed; and the reduced recovery time from minimally invasive procedures cuts bypass costs by half.

Once a device is created, its use during applications invariably spins off other developments. A new thermal sensor, invented at the Jerusalem College of Technology, for example, makes thermal imaging readings more precise during an angiogram. The sensor will be incorporated in the “next generation” of the OpGal line of products. Applications in ocular surgery, neurosurgery, peripheral vascular surgery, cancer detection, and dialysis control with this device are under discussion in Europe, the U.S. and Israel.

Biting into the Future

Economic forecasts indicate a bright future for the biotechnology and biomedical sectors in Israel. The medical technology and devices sectors stand out with the highest growth of any sector during the late 1990s. No fewer than 40% of the 1,500 start-up companies in Israel are in the medical and life sciences arena, with no indication of a slowdown well into the next millennium, according to a survey conducted by the Science and Technology Forecasting Center at Tel Aviv University. By the year 2003, forecasters say, Israeli biomedical and biotechnology industries will have sales of 1.8 billion $US, almost six times the sales in 1997; and investment in this sector will grow to 430 million $US in the year 2000, and to 980 million $US in 2003. During this time, the number of expert workers in the industry will increase to 3,400, a nearly three-fold increase in six years.

According to Ernst & Young, investment analysts, the very best prospects for the industry’s growth, are in the medical devices, bio-electronics, diagnostics and smart drugs sectors. Pure biotechnology, on the other hand, requires greater investment and a longer development time – more than twice the two-to-four-year average estimated development time for medical devices.

The international accounting firm, Kesselman & Kesselman PricewaterhouseCoopers showed in their Money Tree® Survey that the average medical devices sector venture capital investment increased in 1998 by 42% to 2.2 million $US from 1.5 million $US in 1997, with most medical device-based companies located in Haifa and northern Israel. Despite the 4th quarter slowdown, 1998’s 91 million $US in venture backed investment was a massive 86% increase over the previous year, continuing a trend started in the mid-1990’s.

Smart money

In spite of the need to overcome seemingly insurmountable odds, such as distance, language, cultural differences, and fluctuations in the continuing peace process, Israel has become a prime site for international venture capital and technology-seeking funds, especially since the beginning of the 1990s. Since 1992, more than 50 venture capital funds are investing in medical technologies, raising nearly 1.5 billion $US, about half of which was invested within six years. Medica Investments of Medica Venture Partners, like the private Medmax, is a unique fully-dedicated healthcare fund. Because of the high expertise and longterm view, Medica takes a pro-active brokering interest in the business and the science in all of the 11 biotech and medical device investments in its 15 million $US portfolio. Interest in Israel’s medical technology by giant multinationals like Bristol Myers-Squibb, General Electric, GEMS (General Electric Medical Systems), Johnson & Johnson and Siemens has grown increasingly competitive as Israel’s reputation for high-tech innovation and ingenuity spreads. More industry is being developed locally, for example ELGEMS, a joint venture formed in 1997 with Elscint, for the design and manufacture of medical imaging products.

During 1995-97, Israel’s healthcare exports spiraled upwards from 623 million $US to 990 million $US. The electro-medical equipment sub-sector made the largest contribution to the industry’s growth during this time, accounting for a full 59% of total exports, followed by pharmaceuticals and chemicals; biotechnology and diagnostics; and medical supplies.

BIRDF, the U.S.-Israel Binational Industrial Research and Development Foundation, matches Israeli high-tech companies with strategic partners in the U.S. Instrumental in establishing the commercially successful Israeli electronics, communications, and software sectors, BIRDF recently prioritized new biomedical technologies and the links among the biosciences and electronics and computer sciences. And BIRDF is not alone. Recognizing this new and emerging realm of endeavor, in April 1998, a joint seminar of BIRDF and BSF, the U.S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation, focused on three spheres that combine the expertise of cell physiology, electronics and biomedicine: bio-chips and gene-chips; bio-sensors and neuro-sensors; and nanotechnology.

Erecting a Managerial Structure

Whatever the means of development or method of marketing, locally or internationally, with or without foreign partners, medical devices need special expertise for patent protection before they venture out of the laboratory. Israel has special skills in this area too, boasting some 100 active patent attorneys. The primary protector firms are Luzzatto & Luzzatto, Reinhold Cohn & Partners and Dr. Mark Friedman Ltd., which, since arriving just five years ago, handles more than 50% of all new high-tech patent applications actually written and filed in Israel.

The Achilles heel of the medical device, diagnostics and biotechnology sectors is its youth and the commensurate lack of managerial experience. But help is on the way.

The Israeli Biotechnology Organization, an industrial arm working in cooperation with the Israel Manufacturers’ Association, is trying to “re-import” managers, i.e., to convince Israeli executives working in successful biomedical companies in the U.S. to participate in an advisory and teaching capacity in Israel. A similar effort to fast-track management is being made in the U.S. The U.S.-Israel Biotech Committee (USIBC), a nonprofit Washington, D.C. organization, has set up a “Director’s Program” to encourage qualified Israeli administrators and U.S. industry veteran directors to serve as board members for young Israeli start-up companies, matching them according to need and expertise.

Another innovative means to infuse good management skills is to interface young high-tech companies with an entirely new industry in Israel: high-tech management companies, offering skills in building management staff and creating management strategy in combination with investments or strategic partnering. The addition of clinical research organizations has facilitated the work to get medical developments through the regulatory channels.

Marketing Israel’s Products

Management of Israeli medical technology means marketing its products internationally. Being connected to the market, sensitive to market needs, and also being able to persuade public opinion shapers to adopt innovative technologies are challenges facing the new companies. Partnering at the right moment is the key to success, but Israeli high-tech companies have not done this as much as they could have.

Some medical technology firms tend to sell their technologies to international investors at an early stage, rather than risk going on to develop a larger company that would bring foreign currency into the country. The concern is that if Israel becomes an R&D laboratory of the mega-conglomerates of the world, the country, from a national standpoint, is getting the minimum rather than the maximum value per engineer – a pre-marketing company brings in 10 percent of the profits a company with customers can obtain. Worse still, investors who buy companies at the technology stage tend to identify the key people and persuade them to leave Israel. But sometimes, the only way a smaller niche product in the development stage will ever reach the market at all, is to sell out to a bigger and more experienced company.

More and more companies are convinced of the value of retaining R&D in Israel. Multi-billion dollar Siemens AG recently singled Israel out, next to the U.S., as a target for high-tech cooperation plans with future potential. More than 50 Israeli companies, including many start-ups, produce many of the company’s components.

Another multi-billion dollar mega-corporation, General Electric Medical Systems (GEMS), has invested several hundred million dollars in business ventures and acquisitions in Israel, setting up a local umbrella company to focus on imaging, ELGEMS. GEMS has established two global Centers of Excellence for advanced applications development of Magnetic Resonance Imaging and for Nuclear Medicine products, hoping to propel the company into the number one spot in radiation and imaging worldwide.

Some of the other international companies currently conducting business with Israel include Imagyn, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Purotec International, Univision Technologies and Uro-care Laboratories.

“The Heart Knows No Borders”

In the international arena, shared device testing can aid peace efforts as well as medicine. “The Heart Knows No Borders” project has effectively formed a network between Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Authority for testing two cardiac devices invented in Israel.

In 1996, two giant American medical device companies with their Israeli developed products, Medtronic Vascular-Instent and Scimed/Boston Scientific-Medinol, met with the U.S.-Israel Science & Technology Commission, and the Devices Branch of the USFDA, to discuss funding a proposal that would improve patient recruitment for investigational device evaluation (IDE) clinical trials, and at the same time, reap a peace bonus by joining professionals and patient populations in the Middle East.

Submitted by the Duke Clinical Research Institute, the proposal would combine patient recruitment into trials of the Medtronic/InStent beStent-crimper combination and the Medinol/Boston Scientific NIR 5-cell Primo stent for small vessel stenting. By making patient characteristics sufficiently different conflict over competitive recruitment of patients into each protocol is avoided and can actually help shunt into each other’s trial inclusion groups.

Ten interventional cardiology sites in the region and in the U.S. are participating in the studies, including the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, the Technion-Institute of Technology at the Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, the Heart Institute at the Sha’are Tzedek Hospital in Jerusalem, the Queen Alia Heart Institute-King Hussein Medical Center and the University of Jordan.

Equally important, a pilot test of the potential of transmitting digitized angiographic images in parallel with standard cine film image analyses is being assessed for speed and accuracy at the Washington Heart Center, a leading U.S. laboratory. If paperless data analysis can be proven, this sub-study would revolutionize angiography, another aspect not lost on the USFDA. Devices and medical products are becoming global, moving in international commerce between countries, a challenge that USFDA has been addressing more than in previous years. Paperless case reporting would significantly improve international harmonization and standards while saving resources.

“By encouraging neighboring nations to work together, “the Heart Knows No Borders” project facilitates the solution of shared common problems, collective public health priorities that can best be addressed by cooperative efforts...[and is] a healthy way to normalize relations,” said Shimon Peres, former Prime Minister of Israel, founder of the Peres Institute for Peace, who was instrumental in bringing the project to fruition.

In other areas of biomedical research, the U.S. National Institute of Health (NIH) has granted funds for projects in Israel ranging from angiographic research to X-ray crystallography. Sometimes, new procedures can be developed more quickly in Israel to the benefit of all patients.

Examples of Medical Devices & Equipment Pioneered in Israel


Adaptive Immunotherapy	* Weizmann University Professor Zelig Eshhar pioneered the innovative adaptive immunotherapy technique to treat cancer in Israel, which is now being hailed as a "potentially extraordinary development" in cancer treatment. In an article published in Science Translational Medicine, University of Pennsylvania’s Abramson Cancer Center and the Perelman School of Medicine reported that 27 out of 29 patients suffering from advanced blood cancer saw their disease go into remission or disappear completely when treated with adaptive immunotherapy. The treatment involves the patient receiving genetically modified T-cells equiped with chimeric antigen receptors, which are then able to target and destroy the metastasizing tumor cells.
Aesthetic Medicine	* ESC Medical Systems Ltd. – electro-optic medical devices applying proprietary pulsed light technology, for non-invasive treatment of skin cancer, benign lesions, as well as for treatment of varicose veins, skin rejuvenation and hair removal. * SOL-GEL Technologies Ltd. – glass microcapsules containing UV absorbers increase sunblocking by allowing admixture of otherwise incompatible ingredients to maximize photostability and efficacy, and form a layer on but without chemicals contacting the skin.

Autoclaves	* Tuttnauer Co. Ltd. in Jerusalem – is a world leader in steam and gas autoclaves of all sizes for sterilizing medical instruments for clinics, hospitals and laboratories.

Bone Grafts	* Israeli biotech company Bonus Biogroup successfully injected semi-liquid, lab-grown bone graft into the jaws of 11 clinical trial patients during 2016. The bone graft material was grown in a lab using fat cells from each individual patient, and was injected into problematic spaces in their bones. Over a period of months, the bone graft hardened and merged with the original jaw bone. The bone graft was 100% successful in all patients involved with the clinical trial.

Cardiology	Cardiac stents are implanted in blood vessels during angioplasty to keep occluded vessels from re-closing: * InStent with American partner, Medtronic/beStent line and the crimper. * Medinol with American partner, Boston Scientific/Nir cardiac stent line market leader. * Angiosonics Inc. – a catheter-delivered ultrasound for thrombolysis, a non-invasive therapeutic ultrasound in the heart; early studies have shown that it could break up clots in peripheral vessels. * Laser Industries – a Sharplan holmium/yag laser for unblocking multiply-occluded coronary vessels.

Dental Medicine	* Perio – biodegradable chip with slow release chlorhexidine to treat gum disease – from the Hadassah Faculty of Dental Medicine, sold to Israel Chemicals. * CAPTEK – gold, platinum, palladium metal composite for aesthetic, high strength dental crowns and bridges that reduce plaque by 10% on natural teeth.

Diagnostics Cardiology	* BioSense Ltd., CARTA & NOGA systems – hardware-software non-fluoroscopic intrabody navigation and 3-D mapping system, hailed as the missing, real-time link between diagnostics and therapeutics.

Diagnostics Diseases	* NaNose breathalyzer system - breathalyzer that can diagnose more than 18 different diseases, developed at the Israeli Technion Institute of Technology.

Diagnostics Genetics	* ASI – APPLIED SPECTRAL IMAGING – Cytogenetics and pathology have been revolutionized by SKY^TM (Spectral karyotyping), SkyVision, and the SpectraCube™ to sort chromosomes, cells or tissues in colors reflecting genetic abnormalities.

Diagnostics Mammo- graphy	* Trans-Scan – T-Scan devices which significantly improve mammography diagnostic accuracy with no additional radiation. * SophisView Technology Ltd. (SVT) – MACOM 4000 and MAPP 4000 digitized mammography which enhance sub-millimeter details.

Diagnostics Neurology	* Medis-El – Nuritor, an advanced, compact and portable analog/digital EEG * Mindsense Ltd – kits for detecting mental illnesses. * Imexco General Ltd. – Neuritor, a computerized neurological brain-monitor for the acquisition & analyses of multichannel EEG/ECG signals in real time. * Riemed Ltd. – Intra-View, a new generation of transcranial Doppler including intracranial, extracranial, peripheral vascular and intraoperative simultaneous investigation of two cerebral sites.

Diagnostics Ophthal- mology	* MedEye Medical Imaging Ltd. – AngioVision for retinal diagnosis, digital angiographic acquisition and viewing systems. * Talia Technology – Retina Thickness Analyzer (RTA), a combined electro-optical laser and conventional optical instrument for the non-invasive measurement of ocular pathologies. It’s Laser Slit has been marketed since 1996. * Shapiro Instruments (Israel), Subsidiary of Shapiro-Evans Perceptions Ltd. (UK) – Innovative optometric examinations using simple technology, but sophisticated philosophy.

Diagnostics Respiration	* Delve Medical Ltd. – an electronic stethoscope with phonocardiograph instrumentation to receive and digitally process body sounds, filter out interfering noises, and graphically present the sounds on a display screen.

Diagnostics Sleep Distur- bances	* Diagnostic Sleep Laboratory Ltd. – diagnostic equipment for sleep recordings (respiration, ECG, movements).

Emergency Medicine	* First Care (Jerusalem) – bandage that enables self-application to wounds; can also block arterial flow and increase distal hemostatic pressure. * Mennen Medical Ltd. – “Cathlab” patient monitoring equipment for critical care. * Wais Med – “Bone Injection Gun” (B.I.G.™), treats emergency patients with drugs and other fluids by intraosseous infusion, directly into the bone marrow.

Endoscopy	* CBF Medical – Ciliary Beat Frequency monitor attaches to a standard endoscope, to optically measure the frequency waves of ciliary cells as new diagnostic for mucociliary function in respiratory disease and tubal infertility.

Gerontology - Osteoporosis	* Myriad Ultrasound Systems – SoundScan Compact and SoundScan 2000 bone quantitative sonometers which detect subtle changes in bone quality, as in osteoporosis and other bone diseases. * Sunlight Ultrasonic’s Omnisense – the only sonometer providing multiple sites skeletal bone density assessment.

Healing Wounds	* LMS or CHAI (“life” in Hebrew) – the USFDA-approved Sure-Closure Skin-Stretching system, replacing costly skin grafts or flaps to close large wounds and avoid disfiguring scars; newer applications focus on polymer technology, a medium for graft storage and a first-ever wound gel for dermal ulcers and chronic wounds. * SPM RECOVERY – sealed chamber to apply ozone/oxygen mixture and bacterial medium to infectious wounds, post-surgical wounds, trophic ulcers, decubitus, and burns.

Healing Scars	* SIL-K – silicone sheeting from Kibbutz Degania, which has USFDA approval, eases intense pain after scar-tissue removal operations.

Medical Gases	* Oridion (originally Spegas) – pioneered infra-red measurement of carbon dioxide exhaled by patients at all points of care. u Elrad Analytical Systems – systems which monitor gases in patients during medical treatment.

Medical Lasers	* Optomedic Medical Technologies – the Kaplan PenduLaser, a carbon dioxide surgical laser system. * Hadassah-based Nanomed with US-based Summit – a unique movable arm delivery system for cold action excimer laser for intra-ocular surgery. * Nanonics Lithography – the breakthrough Near Field Optics, which can focus laser beams at a tenth of a micron. * A number of companies have developed a broad range of innovative optical glass rods as active media for solid state medical lasers and high intensity luminescence (replacing gas and dye media).

Neona- tology	* NurtureLife the Patir incubator in Jerusalem – a device for checking the amount of milk an infant drinks during breast-feeding. * Hisense Ltd. – 200 $US monitor called Babysense, sends out an alarm if a baby stops breathing while asleep, as happens in SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome). * SPO Medical Equipment Ltd. – Long Life, an early warning monitor, which senses lowered breathing and pulse levels and could prevent SIDS.

Obstetrics	* Medco Electronic Systems Ltd. – Femo, a non-invasive fetal ECG and fetal heart rate monitoring system with true beat to beat variability, which prevents unnecessary C-section deliveries. * Cybro Medical – an optical and non-invasive fetal monitor based on pulse oximetry complementary to the ECG to reduce unnecessary C-section deliveries.

Organ Trans- plantation	* Vital Medical – the Tissue Vitality Analyzer (TVA), expected to save lives and millions of dollars by detecting failed organs before implantation.

Pain Control	* Titan Electronics – a compact, pocket-sized, battery-powered Transcutanous Electronic Nerve Stimulation (TENS) stimulator to relieve menstrual pain.

Radiology & Medical Imaging	* InSight Therapeutics and GEMS – new joint venture TxSonics produce state-of-the-art devices for image guided therapies. * UltraGuide 1000 – new add-on device for ultrasound-assisted interventional procedures. * Real-time Radiography Readout (R3) Ltd. – a joint venture of YISSUM (the Research Development Company of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem) and T.T.I. (Target Technologies Israel) Ltd. * X-Medica – new concepts in filmless digital X-ray, for the next generation of medical imaging.

Radiation Treatment	* Haifa-based Pluristem Theraputics developed an anti-radiation therapy, able to cure almost all patients exposed to “nonconventional radiological incidents,” such as dirty bombs or attacks on nuclear power plants. The therapy is placenta-based, and involves injecting patients who have been exposed to lethal doses of radiation with a serum. The United States began testing this new treatment in early 2016 on large animals, as part of a Homeland Security program to protect people in case of a radioactive attack or catastrophie.

Rehabili- tation	* NESS (“miracle” in Hebrew) – a USFDA-approved glove-like device that aids therapy in restoring function to paralyzed hands and arms.

Telemedicine & Portable Medical Technology	* Card Guard with a Hewlett-Packard UK alliance – provides software-hardware systems for Cardiology/Portable ECG, Pulmonology/SpiroPhone Transtelephonic Spirometer, and Ob/Gyn/Portable Fetal-Maternal Monitoring Device. * Imexco General produces “CardioScope” – a pocket cardiological diagnostic ECG monitor, with storage, printer, and transmission capabilities. * TzamalCare – innovative remote controlled systems, Infu-Tech and Infu-Net diffused infrared wireless transmitters and readers to monitor and control infusion therapy from a remote station.

Thermo- regulation	* MTRE Advanced Technology – ALLON 2000 returns and maintains normothermia of core body temperature into trauma management, during surgery and post-op. * Medisim – Up-Grade gives quick, accurate, digital readout of body temperature.

Urology	* Influence – a device to treat urinary incontinence. * Medispec Ltd. and Direx – devices for treating kidney stones, gallstones and various prostate disorders.

Vascular Systems	* Opgal Medical Systems, a division of Opgal Optronics Industries Ltd. in Karmiel – the IVA-2000 Thermal Imaging System for real-time thermal images of blood flow through exposed coronary arteries, without ingesting toxic contrast materials or exposure to radiation. * OrSense Ltd., a start-up – Hemosense, an infrared-based bloodless blood test of hemoglobin and hematocrit. * Vascular Technologies Ltd. – award-winning device attaches to a standard catheter to indicate correct insertion of an infusion needle into a vein.

Source: Israeli Foreign Ministry

Israel Health & Medicine: Israeli Innovations in Medical Technology