Five Israeli hospitals made it onto the list of 350 top hospitals worldwide for implementing new medical technologies, as ranked by Newsweek in collaboration with Statista in their fourth annual report released on Tuesday.
Sheba Medical Center in Tel Aviv was ranked 10th on the list. Other Israeli hospitals on the list, ranked between 101 and 350, include Hadassah Medical Center, Rabin Medical Center, Rambam Health Care Campus and Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center.
According to various estimates, 115 million people across the world will receive virtual consultations from doctors via telemedicine services this year, in addition to major advancements in digital imaging, artificial intelligence and robotics, which will allow for faster and more accurate diagnosis and treatment. Israel is a technological hub producing and selling many of these innovations worldwide.
Newsweek selected 350 hospitals from 28 countries that excelled in implementing new medical technologies. The U.S. leads the list with 104 hospitals, followed by Germany with 27, the UK with 22, Italy with 21, France with 20 and both Spain and South Korea with 15 hospitals each.
Israel, like Finland and Norway, has five hospitals represented. Saudi Arabia has four hospitals on the list, the UAE has three and Lebanon has one. The top 100 hospitals were ranked numerically, while those from 101 onward were listed alphabetically. Aside from Sheba, none of the Israeli hospitals made it into the top 100.
The ranking was determined through a global survey of healthcare professionals conducted by Statista, assessments of technology utilization at facilities and assessment by the Joint Commission International (JCI), a standard that evaluates patient care quality and safety. The score breakdown is as follows:
- 82.5%: peer recommendations
- 15%: Statista’s Smart Hospitals Maturity Survey
- 2.5%: JCI accreditation
Peer recommendations, which were a major factor in the ranking, involved hospital managers and healthcare professionals knowledgeable about smart hospitals recommending top smart hospitals worldwide.
They highlighted areas such as electronic functionality (e.g., available patient portal options), telemedicine, digital imaging, AI, robotics and virtualization (e.g., use of virtual and augmented reality in patient services or departments).
Sheba Medical Center, noted that this marks the fourth consecutive year the hospital has been included in the prestigious list. In recent months, the hospital has become a producer of advanced medical technology companies which were sold in exit deals estimated to be worth close to $1 billion.
Sheba Medical Center Director-General Prof. Yitshak Kreiss said, "The entrepreneurial and creative DNA that generates company exits valued at about $1 billion is also what makes this medical center one of the smartest hospitals in the world. The day when the healthcare system will become the leading engine of innovation in Israel isn’t far off.”
“If we don’t break the notion that Israel’s healthcare system is a budgetary burden and start seeing it as a profitable investment, we’ll lose quality personnel and miss a golden opportunity to turn it into a significant growth engine for the entire economy,” he added.
Prof. Eyal Zimlichman, Sheba’s Chief Transformation Officer and head of the Accelerate, Redesign and Collaborate (ARC) global innovation program which connects doctors and researchers with investors worldwide, added, "In recent years, we have seen a leap forward in medical technologies and devices, setting a new standard for advanced care.”
“At Sheba’s ARC innovation department, we identify needs and developments via collaboration between entrepreneurs and clinicians, turning them into the latest technological innovations in AI, robotics and digitization, all to allow for better and more efficient medical care,” he added.
Hadassah Medical Center Director-General Prof. Yoram Weiss also commented on the hospital's inclusion in the list. "We’re proud of our oncology and cardiology teams, who again appear in this prestigious list, as well as our technology, scientific and research teams, whose efforts have earned us recognition as one of the world’s smartest hospitals.”
“Hadassah ensures that its excellent professionals are supported by cutting-edge technologies in all fields of medicine, including the integration of AI, building international data repositories and collaborations with the world’s leading companies in science and medicine. The reward for these efforts is seen in the thousands of patients who recover each year from illness and pain and return home,” he said.