Israel's Healthcare System and Medical Research
Explainers on Israel’s public health coverage, medical research, emergency response, and health technology.
Category pages
- How Israel's National Health Insurance System WorksSince January 1, 1995, every Israeli resident has been entitled to the statutory health basket and must register with one of four health funds. The funds deliver care under common rules, financed by public revenue and health insurance contributions.
- Israel's Health Basket: How New Treatments Are ChosenA public committee advises on additions to Israel’s health services basket each year. It weighs clinical benefit, medical need, alternatives, costs, and the available budget before the government approves the expansion.
- Digital Health Records and Research in IsraelHealth funds maintain electronic records that can support care and governed research. Clalit data, for example, supported large observational studies of COVID-19 vaccination; Israel does not operate one unified record system across all providers.
- Sheba Medical Center and ARC: How Hospital Innovation Reaches PatientsARC is Sheba Medical Center’s digital innovation program. It connects clinical teams with researchers and companies and gives selected startups opportunities to pilot technologies within the hospital.
- Israeli Medical Devices: PillCam and ReWalkPillCam is a capsule endoscopy system developed by Israel’s Given Imaging, now part of Medtronic, and ReWalk is a powered exoskeleton. Their clearances cover specific devices and uses, not replacement of all endoscopy or a universal treatment standard.
- Israeli Medical Research: Immunology and CancerIsraeli researchers contributed to cancer biology, including early cloning work on mouse p53 and foundational chimeric-receptor research by Zelig Eshhar and colleagues. Later clinical CAR T therapies emerged through broad international research.
- Israel's Emergency Medicine and Medical Aid AbroadMagen David Adom is Israel’s national emergency medical service and blood services organization. Overseas, Israeli teams have provided disaster care, including an Israel Defense Forces field hospital classified by WHO as an EMT Type 3 in 2016.
- U.S.-Israel Biomedical Projects and the BIRD FoundationThe BIRD Foundation funds joint research and development projects by U.S. and Israeli companies. Its grants can cover up to half of development costs, with repayment tied to commercial revenues; funding does not guarantee regulatory approval.