The Center for Digital Innovation (CDI), the first of its kind in Israel, was launched yesterday at the Park-Advanced Marine Park in Beer Sheva. Digital Health, and at the same time lay the foundations for the promotion of digital innovation in the areas of welfare, education and smart cities, attended by about 200 people, senior members of the high-tech industry and medical worlds in Israel and the United States.
The event was attended by the mayor of Beer Sheva, Ruvik Danilovich, President of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Prof. Rivka Carmi, Ziv Ofek, the founder and CEO of CDI, who led the establishment of the National Medical Information Network and founded and sold the medical technology company dbMotion ( ($ 235M) to technology giant AllScripts; Charles N. Kahn III (Chip) who serves as president of the Federation of American Hospitals FAH and one of the most influential people in the US healthcare system; Richard Siegrist, serial entrepreneur and head of the Center for Innovation at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Dr. David Bates, who was selected by Modern Healthcare magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the United States, internationally renowned expert in patient safety, using information technology to improve clinical decision-making, quality-of-care; Paul M. Black, the CEO and President of AllScripts, the medical information giant, announced the creation of their innovation laboratories, which will allow research to be conducted on the existing Allscripts platform, shortening the time from innovation to implementation. Kahn, SIegrist and Bates are on CDI's US Executive Council.
L to R: Sharon Sasportas (CDI initiator), Ziv Ofek (founder and CEO), Mayor Ruvik Danilovich, Prof. Rivka Carmi (BGU President), Boaz Gur-Lavie (CDI founder and CFO) | Photo: Shay Shmueli
Prof. Rivka Carmi, who will serve as CDI Chairman of Board of Directors, “At Ben-Gurion University, there is an endless line of students, graduates and brilliant faculty members thirsty for innovation and creativity who will be connected to this Center in different ways. CDI will lead the process and I promise it will renew and surprise you every time with innovative ideas. The establishment of the CDI Center, a non-profit company, is part of our vision to turn Beer Sheva into a world center of entrepreneurship and innovation."
Mayor Danilovich said at the event: "When we first established the hi-tech park here in Beer Sheva, there were many people who raised an eyebrow and cynically treated it to anyone who came to the Negev capital. The largest forces in Israel and the world from academia, government, the army, high-tech, medicine, etc. "
Ziv Ofek: "For the first time in Israel, CDI will provide a holistic environment under one roof of all the components required for entrepreneurs in their complex journey, all tailored to the unique needs and character of each start-up. We believe that CDI will produce breakthrough technologies that will improve the lives of millions of people in Israel and around the world, which will accelerate the development of local industry and promote Beer Sheva and the Negev. "
The CDI model - from concept to development to market penetration. CDI is expected to be a hub center for start-ups and investors at all stages of technology development - from the concept stage to bringing the final product to market, with an emphasis on the American market. The Center's services will create a unique entrepreneurial and research ecosystem in the Negev capital of Israel, Beer Sheva. The CDI will also be part of the Digital Israel program, a government initiative to create a national agenda for information and communication technologies. One of the initiative’s other projects is laying fiber-optic cables for high speed internet access.
Alongside Ben-Gurion University, the center established a number of founders from various fields, among them Ziv Ofek, a serial entrepreneur who led and led the establishment of the National Medical Information Network in Israel, a technological project that made Israel the first and only country in the world where hospitals, Medical and civilian clinics and clinics are connected to one information network. He also established and sold the dBMotion technology company ($ 235 million) to the technology giant AllScripts; Boaz Gur-Lavie, an MBA graduate of the Department of Business Administration at the Guilford Glazer Faculty of Business and Management GGFBM at BGU is also a Founder of CDI and its CFO, and heads the Healthy Aging Division and the Smart Cities Division of the Center.
