Tampa General Hospital and the Florida-Israel Business Accelerator (FIBA) are collaborating to identify innovative solutions from Israel designed to improve the quality and delivery of care in the Tampa Bay region and beyond.

“Innovation is so much more than new technology,” said John Couris, president and CEO of Tampa General Hospital. “It’s about reaching out for new partnerships and perspectives to explore groundbreaking ideas and apply world-class solutions in a meaningful, thoughtful way. We expect that our partnership with FIBA will significantly advance our vision to be the safest and most innovative academic health system in America.”

For the first project of the new partnership, Tampa General worked with FIBA to identify Israeli startup companies that demonstrated the potential to develop solutions focusing on efficiency and quality in Tampa General Medical Group’s outpatient physician offices. Out of 50 companies that applied for the program, seven were selected by Tampa General. The companies selected participated in weekly group and one-on-one coaching sessions over a period of six weeks with FIBA advisors to prepare them for presentations to Tampa General’s ambulatory leadership team.

The seven selected companies were tasked with solving challenges associated with streamlining manual administrative tasks, aligning all patient health information for pre-visit physician reporting, improving administrative workflow processes and designing an improved exam room experience.

Once the presentations were made, the Tampa General team assessed the potential companies and will select at least one company for a software-based proof of concept project. Following a successful completion of a test project that demonstrates improved operational efficiency, Tampa General will implement the solution.

“Israel is a leader in digital health technologies with close to 600 companies specializing in this domain and $600 million invested in these Israeli digital health companies in 2019 alone. We are excited to help our partners at Tampa General find the right solution for their needs and at the same time, showcase Florida to Israeli tech companies,” said Rakefet Bachur-Phillips, co-executive director at FIBA.

According to the hospital, Tampa General’s partnership with FIBA is a project of TGH Innoventures, which was founded to spur innovation within the academic medical center and transform the future of health care through the support of early stage startups and direct investments. It is led by Rachel Feinman, vice president of innovation for Tampa General.

“The aim of this partnership — to connect Tampa General with groundbreaking innovations solving critical problems — is exactly the type of project that Innoventures was designed to originate,” said Feinman.

In addition to the FIBA partnership, Tampa General also recently announced earlier this year a partnership with Sheba Medical Center, a world-renowned university teaching hospital near Tel Aviv, Israel with a goal to generate groundbreaking developments in healthcare services, education, training, and innovation.