Israel to launch Big Data health project
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel will invest nearly 1 billion shekels ($287 million) in a project to make data about the state of health of its population available to researchers and private companies, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.
Almost all of Israel’s nine million citizens belong to four health maintenance organizations (HMOs) who keep members’ records digitally, thus comprising a huge medical database.
“This is a major asset and we want to make it accessible to researchers and developers in order to achieve two things: one is preventive medicine, and the second is personal medicine tailored to each individual,” Netanyahu told his cabinet.
Nadav Davidovitch, head of the Public Health School at Ben Gurion University in southern Israel, said the country’s push to harness big data for healthcare had huge potential, but also held risks in terms of privacy and medical confidentiality.
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-health/israel-to-launch-big-data-health-project-idUSKBN1H10LW
Almost all of Israel’s nine million citizens belong to four health maintenance organizations (HMOs) who keep members’ records digitally, thus comprising a huge medical database.
“This is a major asset and we want to make it accessible to researchers and developers in order to achieve two things: one is preventive medicine, and the second is personal medicine tailored to each individual,” Netanyahu told his cabinet.
Nadav Davidovitch, head of the Public Health School at Ben Gurion University in southern Israel, said the country’s push to harness big data for healthcare had huge potential, but also held risks in terms of privacy and medical confidentiality.
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-health/israel-to-launch-big-data-health-project-idUSKBN1H10LW