Tech accelerator showcasing creative medical solutions wraps up in Ashdod

The medical accelerator showcased twelve projects submitted by Assuta Ashdod University Hospital personnel - including doctors, nurses, administrative employees and maintenance staff.

By ZACHARY KEYSER
Assuta Ashdod University Hospital (photo credit: EYAL TOUEG)
Assuta Ashdod University Hospital
(photo credit: EYAL TOUEG)
The Adama Accelerator for Medical Entrepreneurship, which aims to find creative solutions to daily challenges in the field of medicine by way of innovative technological advances, finished up this past week.
The medical accelerator showcased twelve projects submitted by Assuta Ashdod University Hospital personnel - including doctors, nurses, administrative employees and maintenance staff as well as other hospital personnel - looking to resolve common medical challenges.
Some of the featured solutions include ways to speed early detection and diagnosis of viruses such as COVID-19, an early detection of fetal distress using artificial intelligence to monitor fetal heart rate, as well as a smartphone app to electrically stimulate muscles for those with cerebral palsy or other spastic disorders to improve their motor activity, among others.
"In the current era when our attention is shifted to the treatment of coronavirus patients and we mainly see and experience sorrow and loss, the accelerator gives us all a glimpse into a more rosy world that gives a 'boost' of energy – and hope for a speedy return to the race to position the hospital and its people in the front row," said Dr. Erez Barenboim, CEO of Assuta Ashdod.
Over the past 10 weeks, the twelve cohorts received guidance from med-tech experts as part of the accelerator's mentorship program, who help them build a business model, develop marketing strategies and pitches to potential investors, as well as other fundraising strategies. There were also internal organizational initatives geared towards improving procedures within the hospital.
"During 10 intensive weeks of study, experience, presentations, debates and guided work by the best mentors in the field, we saw how ideas mature and crystallize into all realizable projects, which can break boundaries and bring about significant change in many patients' lives, and in the lives of their families," said Director of eHealth Ventures Dr. Yossi Rosenblum, who led the cohorts through the accelerator.
"We will continue to accompany the entrepreneurs, and give a first shot of funding to those who will continue to promote entrepreneurship."
The final event was held at Assuta hospital and streamed live to hospital managers and employees as well as potential investors from Israel and around the world. Upon completion, the cohorts return to fundraising and applying for research grants at the hospital.
"The connection to Assuta Hospital in Ashdod and our support of the Adama Accelerator for Medical Entrepreneurship is only natural for us as a company that is at the forefront of technology and as one that encourages entrepreneurship and innovation," said Zvi Manor, VP of Israel Operations at Adama.
"We believe in the importance of the project more than ever at this time, in a health crisis where the hospital is facing difficult challenges. We are convinced that the program will help develop new projects that may in the future serve the medical world in general and hospital patients in particular."

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Adama, the world’s leading generic crop protection company, is based in Tel Aviv and employs some 6,600 people with a direct presence in 40 countries, offering more than 1,000 end-use products for all major crops to farmers in more than 100 countries worldwide. It inaugurated a multi-million dollar advanced global research and development center in the southern industrial zone of Ne’ot Hovav in early 2019, and oftentimes spearhead initiatives aimed at driving innovation.


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