Israel’s health funds have electronic record systems that document members’ diagnoses, treatments, vaccinations, and other clinical encounters. Researchers can study these longitudinal records under privacy and governance controls. The records belong to separate health organizations; they are not one comprehensive national chart shared across every clinic and hospital.
Clalit Health Services offers a documented example. Researchers used its integrated repositories to assess the safety of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in a large observational study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Clalit data also supported peer-reviewed work on vaccine effectiveness and myocarditis. These studies show how records can answer population-level questions after a treatment is used in routine care.
What longitudinal data can show
Electronic records can connect diagnoses, prescriptions, lab tests, and visits over time within a provider’s system. Researchers can compare outcomes across groups and examine uncommon events in a large population. Data alone cannot establish that a treatment caused an observed outcome, and a model that predicts risk does not prove that an intervention prevents illness.
Clalit’s vaccine studies used retrospective comparisons and specified outcomes. Their conclusions apply to the study populations, period, and methods described in each paper. They demonstrate research capability, not automatic transfer of findings to every population or clinical setting.
Data access has boundaries
Health information is sensitive. Research use must comply with privacy requirements and institutional review. The NEJM safety study states that its raw data were not shared because of privacy regulations. A large dataset is not an open public database; researchers work through approved access and analysis procedures.
Clalit’s infrastructure is one example, not proof of a nationwide real-time exchange. Sheba Medical Center separately describes its paperless hospital and startup pilots through ARC. For the coverage framework, see Israel’s four health funds.
See the NEJM study using Clalit records, a NEJM analysis of myocarditis after vaccination, and Clalit Research Institute’s research description.