IBM Israel and Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem have set up an accelerator that will allow startups to develop digital health tools, solutions and services.
The news was unveiled at an event regarding the eighth class of the IBM Alpha Zone accelerator, which focuses on areas like IoT, security and big data analytics. It’s open to startups innovating in healthcare, retail, travel and transportation, energy and utilities, telecommunications and media. One previous Alpha Zone participant is Nutrino Health, which was acquired by Medtronic last month.
As for the new program from IBM and Hadassah, it is set to begin in the first quarter of 2019 and will last six months. It’s open to startups that have completed a post-seed round of financing. Participating companies will receive access to resources and medical expertise from Hadassah, while IBM will offer the startups technology advice and access to services like hosting on IBM Cloud.
Hadassah Medical Center said it was drawn to IBM because of IBM Alpha Zone’s experience in digital health.
“Working with IBM will propel development to the forefront of advanced medicine internationally and constitute an additional element in realizing Hadassah’s vision of leading the medicine of the future,” said Tamar Raz, CEO of Hadassah Medical Center’s technology transfer company Hadasit.
The accelerator will be built on the premises of the Biohouse technology incubator in the Hadassah Ein Kerem Medical Center. Additionally, it will be supported by the Jerusalem Development Authority, an agency of the Israeli government and the Jerusalem Municipality that promotes the development of the city of Jerusalem.