This publication by the German Israeli Health Forum for Artificial Intelligence (GIHF-AI), the health policy innovation program of the European Leadership Network (ELNET), takes an exemplary look at the cooperation between Germany and Israel in the fields of digital health and AI in healthcare.
Author: Lea Ledwon
German Israeli scientific relations can look back on a long tradition. In the mid-1960s, they manifested themselves in the first cooperation programs, which paved the way for stronger diplomatic relations between the two countries. To this day, they are the foundation of intensive cooperation and continue to inspire new exchanges at various levels between ministries, universities, research institutes, or individual researchers from both countries.
When it comes to the digitalization of healthcare, Israel is years ahead of Germany. This point was also emphasized by the German Minister of Health, Prof. Dr. Karl Lauterbach, during the third annual GIHF-AI conference in June 2024. According to the minister, the cooperation agreements signed between university hospitals as part of GIHF-AI are among the program’s most important achievements. The cooperation agreements and implementations between German university hospitals – Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Hamburg Eppendorf (UKE), Essen (UME), and Schleswig-Holstein (UKSH) – and Israel’s largest hospitals, Sheba Medical Center (Sheba) and Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center (Ichilov), as well as the largest Health Maintenance Organization (HMO), Clalit Health Services, are outlined below.
These examples demonstrate the value of cooperation between Germany and Israel in the fields of digital health and AI. It is therefore advisable to initiate further agreements of this kind and with continued political support. GIHF-AI remains the leading bilateral digital health platform ilateral platform for fostering such digital health collaborations.
