CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--MATTER, the Chicago-based healthcare incubator, innovation community, and corporate innovation accelerator, and Sheba Medical Center, the leading medical innovation center in Israel, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to foster collaboration between the Chicago and Israeli healthcare innovation communities. The partnership is designed to accelerate the commercialization of new technologies that will benefit patients.
Through this partnership, MATTER startups will have opportunities to pilot their technologies with Sheba Medical Center. The medical center has a highly developed innovation capability, and is able to facilitate pilots for new solutions at a pace almost unheard of in U.S. health systems.
Sheba Medical Center also supports a number of Israel-based healthcare technology startups building digital health solutions. MATTER will leverage its network of entrepreneurs, innovators, health systems, industry partners, and experts to help open the door to U.S. markets for Sheba Medical Center-affiliated startups.
“MATTER is the perfect platform for Israeli healthcare companies to enter the U.S. market,” MATTER CEO Steven Collens said. “Israel has developed one of the most productive startup ecosystems in the world, and we look forward to engaging with the Israeli startup community.”
“Sheba Medical Center and MATTER both share a passion for game-changing innovation and a vision for better healthcare for all,” said Sheba Medical Center Deputy Director Dr. Eyal Zimlichman. “I believe the collaboration between the two organizations will be instrumental in pushing our vision forward.”
The agreement was signed during Collens’ recent trip to Israel with Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and World Business Chicago. The delegation was formed to promote investment and innovation in Chicago.
“Chicago and Israel have a long history of collaboration and thanks to partnerships like this, the bond between us is growing even stronger,” Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said. “I look forward to seeing what this partnership between two innovative organizations produces to benefit people throughout the world.”
MATTER is a community of entrepreneurs, innovators, and industry leaders working together to harness technology to improve health and healthcare. MATTER works with 200 healthcare technology startups, and the company partners with 11 hospitals and health systems, five universities, and more than 40 industry-leading companies. By equipping, empowering, and emboldening healthcare innovators, MATTER accelerates the development of technologies that solve the right healthcare problems in the right ways.
Sheba Medical Center is a university-affiliated tertiary referral hospital that serves as Israel's national medical center in many fields. Adjacent to Tel Aviv, it is the most comprehensive medical center in the Middle East, renowned for its compassionate care and leading-edge medicine. It is also a major medical-scientific research powerhouse that collaborates internationally with the bio-tech and pharmaceutical industries to develop new drugs, treatments and technologies, and a foremost global center for medical education.
