Dear Friends,
Sometimes the most rewarding aspect of philanthropy isn’t making grants, but making connections between our grantees—then watching how the sparks of innovation start to fly in new directions.
The latest example of this “grantee synergy” is a promising new partnership between Sheba Medical Center, a world-leading hospital on the outskirts of Tel Aviv, and Holy Name Medical Center, a Teaneck, N.J. gem that combines excellent patient care with cutting-edge technological and research advances. Since Angelica Berrie introduced the two RBF grantees a decade ago, they have found multiple opportunities for collaboration, resulting in benefits to both institutions, their patients and the medical field at large.
Holy Name Medical Center’s innovation leadership team. Photo Credit: Holy Name Medical Center.
In the latest example, Sheba and Holy Name have recently agreed to partner on an ambitious, multidisciplinary effort to redesign the future of medicine by developing, commercializing and scaling new health technologies.
Sheba launched its ARC Innovation Center—which stands for Accelerate, Redesign and Collaborate—a year ago, to fast-track emerging technologies by giving Israeli digital healthcare startups the opportunity to work alongside expert physicians to pinpoint unfulfilled clinical needs and develop new solutions. Since then, the effort has expanded to include strategic partnerships with medical centers and digital health leaders worldwide.
Holy Name (whose innovation leadership team is pictured, above) is the first American hospital to join the effort, by signing a memorandum of understanding with Sheba. It’s an ideal partner for Sheba because of its pioneering work in telemedicine and medical simulation, its renowned clinical research institute and nursing school, and its proximity to both New York City and New Jersey’s pharmaceutical hub. Perhaps most crucial, though, is Holy Name’s longstanding culture of innovation, collaboration and excellence—which Sheba’s leadership could not have been expected to know about without that personal introduction from Angelica, years ago.
It’s early days for this latest incarnation of the Sheba-Holy Name partnership. Even so, we’re excited that these two remarkable institutions are embarking on a process that we fully expect will move needles, at a time when the need for healthcare innovation is so very clear.
In the months ahead I hope to share ARC-related developments as well as news about another promising alliance facilitated by RBF. That partnership, between the Technion Advanced Manufacturing Institute, a new arm of Technion-Israel Institute of Technology (a longtime RBF grantee), and the Institute for Advanced Manufacturing, a government-funded economic development entity, has the potential to power the economy of Israel’s Western Galilee region. Working together, the institutions hope to create a vibrant center for “advanced manufacturing,” which uses robotics and other leading-edge technologies to improve products and processes.
Our team takes great pleasure in our mission of identifying and supporting exceptional organizations doing groundbreaking work. When these organizations find creative opportunities to partner, their impact becomes transformative.
We wish those of you who will be celebrating as joyful a Thanksgiving as possible under the current circumstances. We are grateful for the remarkable changemakers of the world, who are building a better future for all of us.
Sincerely,
Ruth Salzman
Chief Executive Officer