Israel Innovation Authority participated in the 2019 Grand Challenges Annual Meeting co-hosted by the African Union, Ethiopia’s Ministry of Health, Grand Challenges Canada / Grands Défis Canada, USAid and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The Grand Challenges Annual Meeting is a convening of over 1,000 key leaders from across the global community to share best practices, encourage collaboration and seek solutions for common challenges. It aims to build momentum for global health and development innovation and foster scientific collaboration among international groups and researchers.

Since 2014, Israel Innovation Authority runs a local Grand Challenges program in cooperation with MASHAV, Israel’s Agency for International

Development Cooperation.

The aim of the incentive program is to encourage R&D of innovative technological solutions to societal challenges in global health, water and food security in low income countries. The program, initially founded with the mentorship of Grand Challenges Canada, has been active since 2014 and has supported 27 technological projects to date, many of which have delivered significant impact.

At the meeting in Addis Ababa, Innovation authority presented a poster featuring the winners of the latest call for projects in health (Senecio, #Zzapp, Wheelchairs of Hope), water (Soapy, #Alumor Tipa) and food security (#OKO, Hargol FoodTech, Amaizz, Farmster).

The poster was also published in the Gates Open Research platform: link

Thank you Innovation Authority for such an honor!

It all started when we arrived on the 41st floor on top of the Salesforce Tower on the 6th avenue in NY.

The view was unbelievable

The 365x acceleration program of Sarona Ventures that enhance scalability for Software or IoT Startup Companies. Surrounded by talented Executives and Entrepreneurs, that help to sharpen business, product, and technology, while accessing an international customer and distributors network to affirm reliable traction towards scalability. The program manager, Liron Winberg, succeeded in packing the room with investors and innovation leaders from the New York community. Thanks to Liron, the event felt like a community of high-class professionals. That came to share and brainstorm as One group and not as individuals that just met.

Our CEO and co-Founder, Mr. Max Simonovsky, was honored to be the last presenter.

Mr. Simonovsky closed his pitch session with a clear message of our vision: We should do Business for Impact and Impact for a better future.

A fully interactive comprehensive symposium that covers all aspects of the most up to date thoracic surgery, oncology and pneumology and their interdisciplinary relationship.

Providing all the elements to develop an advanced and successful program for the diagnosis, care and treatment of the different stages of lung cancer.

For more information visit: https://thoraciconcology.it/

The idea for this article germinated in a restaurant bathroom. Before my meal arrived, I went to the men’s room and saw one of their employees leave a toilet stall and just walk by the sign we all know from public establishments: “Employees Must Wash Hands Before Returning to Work.”

Well, he didn’t wash his hands, and during my meal I wondered how actively involved he was in the preparation of my food.

As health and hygiene become, at least in some places, more advanced and efforts to increase environmental sustainability rise, I wondered who was doing interesting things in this space.

Paired with a relatively new awareness among Israeli techies and investors that social entrepreneurship is more than just a means for economic progress across emerging markets, some Israeli companies seek to make it core to their technology.

As Neta-Li Meiri, managing director of 8200 Impact explains: “Technology is developing at a rapid rate with unbridled potential for societal change. By focusing on net productivity and advancement, we hold the ability to close the gap between developed and developing nations through technology to bring basic necessities (food, water, and healthcare) in the most efficient way.”

Here’s an example of how one company can make a massive impact, utilizing computer vision software embedded into its hardware.

SoapyCare makes and installs Internet-connected hand washing units that recognize the person standing in front of them. This could be kitchen workers, customers, waiters, cleaners, hospital staff, or just children in a kindergarten.

Based on the person’s identity and location, the hand washing device creates a hand washing sequence. As this is occurring, the screen verifies that the user is washing their hands properly and collects data on the performance, which is sent to the company’s cloud-based servers. SoapyCare can then detect when someone is doing the proper hand hygiene routine, and when someone is not. Post washing, a summary can be sent straight to the user’s smartphone or device.

The customers’ management teams decide the consequences if people do not comply with internal hygiene policies. The company says its hand washing unit is also environmentally friendly, using 95% less water and 65% less soap than users would typically utilize when washing their hands without the machine.

SoapyCare makes and installs Internet-connected hand washing units that recognize the person standing in front of them. This could be kitchen workers, customers, waiters, cleaners, hospital staff, or just children in a kindergarten.

Based on the person’s identity and location, the hand washing device creates a hand washing sequence. As this is occurring, the screen verifies that the user is washing their hands properly and collects data on the performance, which is sent to the company’s cloud-based servers.

SoapyCare can then detect when someone is doing the proper hand hygiene routine, and when someone is not. Post washing, a summary can be sent straight to the user’s smartphone or device. The customers’ management teams decide the consequences if people do not comply with internal hygiene policies. The company says its hand washing unit is also environmentally friendly, using 95% less water and 65% less soap than users would typically utilize when washing their hands without the machine.

The company says it should have a few hundred Soapy units installed around the world by the end of the year. The cost per machine ranges from $2,400-$3,000 per system, depending on the specific project.

Surewash and Vizzia are two other examples of other companies working to ensure that people follow proper hand washing protocols.

According to SoapyCare’s calculations from the Centers for Disease Control data, some 2.4 billion people, roughly one-third of the world’s population, get sick as a result of improperly washing their hands. In the U.S. alone, there are over 42 million illness cases as a result of inadequate washing and hygiene, according to CDC information on foodborne illnesses and handwashing.

This problem is especially severe in the food and beverage, and healthcare industries. According to the CDC, in the food and beverage industry, 89% of illnesses come from poor hygiene. The CDC states that one in 31 patients return to or stay in the hospital due to diseases that spread from doctors and nurses performing improper hygiene practices.

Dr. Roni Sharon at Sheba Medical Center in Israel says more could be done to avoid unnecessary infections at hospitals. Adequate handwashing by hospital staff can potentially reduce 40-60% of preventable infections acquired in the hospital, Dr. Sharon said. This is also true outside of hospitals. Within the past year, studies have shown that OTC hand sanitizers, which until now have been a holy grail product boasting 99.9% effectiveness in killing germs and bacteria, are not working nearly as well as people think. The FDA states that these hand sanitizers are inferior to hand washing in food establishments, and the CDC and WHO have published similar sentiments.

The new trend, SoapyCare predicts, is working to make hygiene as simple and easy as possible so that machines can create positive habits in employees, keeping everyone in their surrounding environments safe and healthy. “Through newly adopted gamified solutions, technology can bring people to create desired shifts in their behavior,” says Inbal Arieli, author of Chutzpah: Why Israel is a Hub of Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

Max Simonovsky and Alex Orlovsky, the scientists and founders behind SoapyCare, say the company was founded as a social impact venture, which means it does not simply have an economic agenda. So while their primary focus is on ensuring a reduction of sickness rates as a business model, they also pledge to donate one unit to a developing country for every ten units that are purchased anywhere across the globe.

For the full article follow the link

Royal Society for Public Health says need to expose children to germs is ‘dangerous myth’

RSPH says it is important children wash their hands after playing outside, before eating and after using the toilet. Photograph: Jennie Hart/Alamy

The notion that too much cleanliness can be bad for your health and that children need to be exposed to germs is a dangerous myth, according to a public health body.

The Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) said the hygiene hypothesis – that allergies are caused by too much cleanliness, by killing off the bugs we need to challenge our immune systems – has entered the public imagination and is being misinterpreted.

Playing outside in the dirt will certainly do children good by exposing them to good bacteria, the RSPH stressed, but it was vital that they washed their hands before eating and after going to the toilet.

“The time has come when we need to sort this one out,” said Sally Bloomfield, the honorary professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who is lead author of a report called Too Clean or Not Too Clean. “The public is becoming very confused.”

Two out of five people in a survey wrongly thought children’s mucky hands after playing outdoors would spread germs. Grubbing around outside and playing with animals was important for building a robust immune system, the study said, but cleanliness still really mattered when people were preparing food and before eating it.

At a time when antibiotic resistance is on the rise and the NHS is under pressure, it is more important than ever to try to stop infections, says the report. Around one in four people get an infectious intestinal disease every year and one in 20 pick up norovirus, the vomiting bug, it says. Adults get four to six colds every year and children pick up six to eight. The report said hand washing and hygiene could stop the spread.

In the survey, however, 23% of 2,000 people agreed that “hygiene in the home is not important because children need to be exposed to harmful germs to build their immune system”.

Men were more likely than women to think that hygiene was not vital. They were more than twice as likely as women to think there was low or no risk associated with not washing hands with soap after using the toilet (16% vs 7%) or after handling raw meat (8% vs 4%).

The RSPH is calling for “targeted hygiene”. Washing the floor does not matter that much, it says. Nor it is important to spend time cleaning inside the toilet bowl – flushing gets rid of the germs. But it is important to clean food preparation surfaces and wash dishcloths.

Most crucial to breaking the chain of transmission of dangerous pathogens is hand washing – after visiting the toilet, after playing with or caring for pets, before and after preparing food and after coughing, sneezing or nose-blowing, said the report.

“Food poisoning shot up in the 1980s and 1990s and the Food Standards Agency did a lot of work, but levels of gastrointestinal diseases remain at unacceptable levels,” said Bloomfield. “It is the same thing with respiratory diseases. We’re always at risk of a flu pandemic. If such a thing occurred the public would always be the first line of defence until a vaccine can be put in place.”

The RSPH said children should be taught in school about how infection occurred and about targeted hygiene. “This should embed best practice of hygiene from an early age and promote consistent understanding of the terminology used to talk about hygiene and hygiene issues,” read the report. It also called for education for the media “to help ensure they do not give confusing and counter-productive messages”.

For the original article follow the link

The 8200 division is probably one of the most elite forces of the Israeli Di-fence Force specializing in Hi Tech, Security, Cyber tech and more. The division generates every year an unbelievable human talent that is fuse in to the Israeli ecosystem through variety of innovative ventures(IoT, AI, Cyber security, VR, and more)

Former 8200 entrepreneurs organize a non profit organization(NPO) to integrate, nature, incubate and accelerate division young talent in the public and private sectors. The NPO is also one of the best and most experienced startup incubator ad accelerator for young entrepreneurs.

Every year the 8200 NPO invites Israeli ecosystem to a one of a kind conference where all of the new success stories are presented to meet customers, investors, and recruit new talent.

This year Soapy was honored to be among the companies that presented at the conference!

What we learned and gained at the conference?

1) People love to wash hands with our unit more than using regular toilet faucet and sink.

2) We washed more than 100 unique pair of hands and talked with more than 250 people.

3) ~30% returning users that brought new users (their friends) to wash hands properly.

Reinventing hand hygiene – saving lives wash by wash 🙂

Max Simonovsky & Alex Orlovsky, our founders visited one of the best startup podcusts in Israel – NovusI2X

Want to listen? Listen to us on hashtag #spotify or through this link

India’s talent and Israeli tech are combining to take the fight to the Silicon Valley. Reliance Jio, Paytm, Flipkart, Freshworks, MakeMyTrip, Wipro, Infosys, among others, have already partnered with the Startup Nation. The race for acquisitions is gathering pace.

When 29-year old Chartered Accountant Saket Agarwal decided to bring Israeli technology to India, he saw what many opportunists didn’t see – growing B2C businesses in India with the help of the strong deep tech ecosystem in Israel.

His company, Onnivation began its tryst with destiny in 2015 and worked on bringing the best of deep tech from Israel into India to solve a common set of problems around Data Science, Devops, Adtech, Cyber Security. All these tech-related issues stand in the way of B2C companies scaline new heights in the globalised world. Today, the investment firm has done 15 joint ventures with Israeli companies and counts India’s top startups and corporate giants as its clients.

From Flipkart’s Myntra to Zee India’s Zee5, Viacom18, MakeMyTrip, Freshworks, Kotak and ICICI Bank, the list of tie-ups is long but the pursuit for excellence has just begun. One of Israel’s most valuable private technology companies, IronSource, which works with India’s leading app developers, mobile OEMs and carriers such as PhonePe and Samsung India is bullish on what the Indian market has to offer.

“The best, most innovative technologies are developed in response to a pressing need which can’t be solved by any solution currently available. India has a unique set of challenges, which cross a wide variety of industries and which can spawn incredibly innovative technologies that impact the lives of millions,” the adtech firm’s co-founder Arnon Harish told Entrepreneur India.

The sentiment on the Indian side is similar with industry leaders such as the 93- year old Essel Group’s newly launched video on demand website ZEE5 India actively imbibing Israeli technology.

Tarun Katial, CEO of ZEE5 India, feels India needs to move its entire engineering effort from services to making world class products. “In India if the tech companies move from service and development to solving problems of global scale, it will be a step in becoming the tech capital of the world,” says Katial.

ZEE5 India is already working with Cloudinary, a market leader in inclusive cloud-based image video management, Optimove which assists brands with emotional intelligence, Minute.ly, which uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to increase profitability by leveraging video content and Kaltura which provides video solutions to organisations.

WHY INDIA?

India is undoubtedly one of the world’s most attractive battlegrounds for global brands believe many Israeli startups and investors.

Barak Granot, Head of Economic & Trade Mission, Embassy of Israel in New Delhi, thinks that any Indian company reaching out for an Israeli tech partner would be impressed by the speed, efficiency and result-oriented manner that characterize the Israeli tech companies.

No wonder, Israel’s biggest VC fund OurCrowd’s portfolio companies have identified India as a sweet spot.

Jonathan Medved, Founder & CEO of OurCrowd, says India is at the brink of an agriculture revolution and it is expected to be based on sensor-driven data managed by AI, Machine Learning (ML), algorithms – all of which is a stronghold of Israeli tech startups.

The crowdfunding equity platform has already invested in India’s succesful car-rental startup ZoomCar. Among its other entrants in the Indian ecosystem is Zebra Medical Vision, which has a partnership with India’s top hospital chain Apollo Hospitals.

Eyal Gura, Co-Founder & Chairman of Zebra Medical Vision, is confident India is going to be among the world’s top three healthcare markets in the next decade. Gura thinks the fund’s partnership with Apollo will be an enabler for Modicare.

Futuristic mobility company SkyTran has partnered with India’s richest man Mukesh Ambani to launch its ambitious transit pods in Mumbai. SkyTran’s CEO John Colebelieves Ambani is a visionary and finds India the perfect launch pad for SkyTran’s transit pads.

A portfolio company of Israel-based Pico Partners, Spotinst, is bringing Israeli innovation in cloud computing to Indian companies. Spotinst saves upto 80 percent cost on cloud bills and charges 20 percent of the savings – a model that is suited for the Indian market. It counts India’s Lenskart and Paytm as its customers.

Mark Van Den Haak, VP of Sales, APAC, Dynamic Yield, thinks the sheer scale of the Indian market is particularly attractive for any tech company. The Indian market is also less complicated than China, but at the same time it remains very fragmented, believes Haak.

Max Simonovsky, Founder & CEO of Soapycare – the IoT company that develops hygiene micro stations to provide accurate dose of soap and water – believes India is the best destination for technology absorption in the world.

Recently, McDonald’s acquired Dynamic Yield, a decision-logic technology provider for $300 million marking the Chicago-based company’s biggest acquisition in March this year.

The CEO of Sapiens International Corporation, a NASDAQ-listed insurance software provider based out of Israel, Roni Al-Dor calls a remarkable synergy between the Startup Nation and India the reason for the firm’s expansion in India.

Sapiens has built one of its largest sites outside of Israel, complete with R&D and a sales team, employing over 800 individuals on the ground in India.

KEY OPPORTUNITY AREAS

Granot thinks Indian startups do not need help from Israeli tech companies. But collaboration in R&D between innovative companies in India and Israel can benefit both sides.

For instance, cyber security companies in Israel can tie up with fintech/mobile payments companies in India. Similarly, E-mobility companies in India and Israel can provide cleaner, safer, and smarter mobility experience for Indian drivers and passengers. Medical devices and digital health companies in both the nations can cut costs and provide E-health solutions.

The impressive list of Indian majors adopting Israeli tech includes Bharti Airtel, Wipro, Infosys, SAR Group, GMR, Sony India, Tech Mahindra, Triveni Group, JIO, IDEA, NDTV, Jain irrigation, Taj Hotels, ITC Hotels as well as Delhi Jal Board, BSNL, TaTa, AP, Kolkata and Karnataka Police, the Indian military, NTPC and the Chennai Municipal Corporation in the government domain.

Lucid IL’s Tzakhi Freedman feels Israel’s expertise in AI and algorithms, thanks to the military background of many Israeli founders, can be beneficial for India in various domains, including fintech, industry automation and music. His company Lucid IL is a business consulting firm located in Tel Aviv specializing in business partnerships between Israel and India revolving around technological developments.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Global Innovation & Technology Alliance are keen on tie-ups in ICT, health, water and agriculture, says Senior Director of Asia Pacific Operations, Israel Innovation Authority, Avi Luvton.

“We’ve seen interest from private sector companies like EM3, which makes Israeli agri-tech accessible to Indian farmers, and Wipro Group, which adapts Israeli technologies, he adds.

Max Simonovsky, Founder & CEO of Soapycare – the IoT company that develops hygiene micro stations to provide accurate dose of soap and water – believes India is the best destination for technology absorption in the world.

The Chief Commercial Officer of mPrest Ron Halpern opines that the opportunities – from managing distributed renewable energy resources to increasing energy efficiency by predictive maintenance of legacy utility assets – for sustainability and creating cleaner energy in India are endless. Apart from technology exchange, startups of both the nations are sought-after for acquisitions.

Among the lucrative acquisitions of Israeli startups by Indian companies are Maxximilk, which was picked up by Godrej Agrovet and Upstream Commerce, which was bagged by Flipkart.

The M&A activity is also picking up. The latest Indian company to be grabbed is Chennai-based Air Freight Bazaar, which was acquired by Israel-based Freightos. The latter has the world’s largest air cargo rate database. “India & Israel boast both archaic industries as well as an entrepreneurial drive to change those industries using digitization,” believes Zvi Schreiber, the CEO of Freightos.

EXCHANGE OF LEARNINGS

Israel is a country with more startups per capita than almost anywhere else in the world. India can look at the Israeli ability to decide quickly, make bold moves, daring to take on any competition while aiming at the top and Israelis can learn from India the value of long-term strategic planning, and the ability to build to scale, believes Freedman.

Elie Wurtman, Founder of Pico Partners, says the Israeli tech ecosystem has a unique ability as problem solvers to see the world not as it is, but as it could be. “We believe that this unique skill set, coupled with India’s capabilities and large market, present a win-win opportunity,” he adds.

One of the critical elements that would encourage innovation especially for early stage companies and the fledgling startup ecosystem is a comfort with risk taking and failure. This attitude must be fostered even at the school level, believes Harish.

Omer Paz, COO of Paykey, says being blunt may not be the best way to handle all situations, but it helps.

The co-founder of MUGO, an Israel-based social music app, Ori Segal says Israel’s ability to produce breakthrough technology at a reasonable price is a win for India.Itay Jonas, VP Business Development of WonderLogix, a software platform for industrial designs, feels collaboration with local companies in India will bring about a new industrial revolution.

So, the verdict of the business world is unanimous: India and Israel can together conquer the next tech frontier.

(This article was first published in the May issue of Entrepreneur Magazine. To subscribe, click here)

Full article: Link

Bloodstream infections (BSI) are one of the most cited complications among hemo-dialysis patients within dialysis units (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2017). These types of infectious complications, such as peritonitis, often associated with unhygienic technique and exit-siteinfection. Prevention of exit-site location is largely associated with skin-resident microbes. Approximately 42% of peritonitis episodes are known to be associated with touch contamination.

One of the most commonly cited tools to prevent infections is efficient hand washing (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2017). In 2005, the International Society for Peritoneal Dialysis (ISPD) recommended hand washing as a standard care recommendation and procedure to befollowed in dialysis treatment centers.

In a 2013 study, researchers compared the hand washing efficiency of two different techniques for patients undergoing dialysis care: (1) the use of simple hand hygiene followed by antiseptic hand hygiene, and (2) only antiseptic hand washing. Simple hand hygiene followed traditional hand washing techniques, while the antiseptic hand hygiene mechanism included the use of 3 mL of 70% ethyl alcohol as a mechanism. Interestingly, this study found that the number of bacteria found on hands was increased when the mechanism for hand washing included the use of simple hand hygiene in addition to the antiseptic hand washing method in comparison to only antiseptic hand washing.

The results of this study potentially indicate that one of biggest hindrances in achieving bacteria-free hands is the use of improper or ineffective techniques for washing hands. This study indicates that one of the largest obstacles to achieving sufficient hand hygiene likely relies on the ability of patients to accurately and efficiently clean their hands.

References:Center of Disease Control and Prevention. (2017). Infection Prevention Tools. U.S. Department of Heath & Human Services. Retrieved from:https://www.cdc.gov/dialysis/prevention-tools/index.html

Figueiredo, A. E., de Siqueira, S. L., Poli-de-Figueiredo, C. E., & d’Avila, D. O. (2013). Hand hygiene in peritoneal dialysis patients: a comparison of two techniques. Peritoneal Dialysis International, 33(6), 655-661.