Sheba Medical Center collaborates with OpenAI to increase access to healthcare AI models

ISRAEL— Sheba Medical Center, through its ARC innovation center, has entered into a strategic partnership with OpenAI to give physicians at the country’s largest hospital access to the company’s healthcare-focused artificial intelligence (AI) models.

The agreement makes Sheba the first hospital outside the United States to join OpenAI’s healthcare program and gain access to its dedicated suite of medical AI tools.

The partnership was signed with Nate Gross, OpenAI’s head of health, according to Calcalist.

A delegation from Sheba is also expected to visit OpenAI’s headquarters in August for meetings with senior executives.

The collaboration includes access to OpenAI’s healthcare models, including ChatGPT Health, which the company introduced in January and has made available to a limited number of US hospitals.

The models are designed to support clinicians by helping them evaluate medical information, make decisions and develop treatment plans based on current clinical research.

OpenAI has designed the system with encryption and security measures intended to meet the requirements of healthcare organizations.

Under the agreement, Sheba physicians will receive early access to new healthcare models before their wider release, while the partnership will also expand research collaboration between the two organizations.

Clinical applications and research collaboration

As part of the agreement, dedicated teams at Sheba will contribute to product development and gain early insights into new models while OpenAI develops them.

 The teams will also participate in OpenAI healthcare events and create internal applications optimized for the platform.

In addition, Sheba plans to incorporate its clinical protocols, treatment pathways and institutional guidelines into OpenAI’s models.

This integration could enable the system to provide responses aligned with the hospital’s approved standards and, eventually, support recommendations tailored to Israeli clinical practice.

In daily clinical and research settings, physicians and researchers will be able to submit patient case descriptions and receive responses that include relevant medical literature, supporting studies, journal references, and publication dates.

These citations will allow clinicians to independently review and verify the evidence supporting the information provided by the AI system.

The technology is also expected to support administrative and operational tasks.

By assisting with documentation and other routine workflows, the platform could help reduce the administrative workload for healthcare professionals and improve efficiency across the hospital.

Sheba expands its AI innovation portfolio

The partnership builds on Sheba’s expanding use of AI technologies through its ARC innovation center.

The portfolio includes solutions developed by Aidoc, which uses AI to analyze medical images and help accelerate the diagnosis of critical conditions.

It also includes SmartER, an emergency department platform that automatically documents and summarizes patient encounters.

Sheba established ARC in 2019 under the leadership of Director General Prof. Yitshak Kreiss and Chief Transformation and Innovation Officer Dr. Eyal Zimlichman.

 The center focuses on accelerating digital healthcare innovation by enabling startups to test emerging technologies within the hospital.

ARC also develops strategic partnerships with healthcare institutions worldwide and operates an investment platform in collaboration with TriVentures.

“The healthcare system is one of the fields where artificial intelligence can have the greatest impact,” OpenAI said in a statement.

“We are excited to collaborate with Sheba to make advanced AI capabilities available to doctors, researchers, and healthcare professionals.”