This past week FAH President and CEO Chip Kahn served as co-chairman at a first of its kind summit in Israel centered around the theme – “The Future Hospital: Setting Strategies for 2030 and Beyond.”

The event was hosted by Sheba Medical Center, Tel HaShomer where Chip was joined by leading health care executives from the US, Canada, Europe and Israel.

Participants took part in in multiple workshops that addressed developing medical professions, the evolving role of hospital systems and how hospitals can expand community-based patient care. Participants also had the chance to experience cutting-edge technologies currently being developed in Israel that will shape the future of the health and medical industry.

Kahn said after the summit that the discussions were a good first step.

“We all agree we can't predict the future but we know digitalization and medical science is advancing very quickly. And while digitalization and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are going to change the way we address patient care, we cannot lose sight of the fact that the essence of healthcare is compassion with a human touch. Digitalization will transform patient care for physicians and health care professionals, as they will become translators of data for their patients as well as caregivers.”

Adding, “We also agreed that the hospital of the future will have to go beyond the 4 walls and become a virtual caregiver to patients and communities alike. Additionally, hospitals, in order to meet the demands of care in the future, will have to be flexible.  The sharing of these challenging ideas at the Sheba International Summit will now serve as a powerful foundation for on-going discussions between us going forward.”

The roster of those in attendance included:

• Prof. Robert Bell, CEO, Royal Brompton & Harefield Hospitals Chair, Association of UK University Hospitals, UK, London
• Dr. Fabrice Brunet, President and CEO, University Hospital of Montreal (CHUM) and CHU Sainte-Justine, Canada, Montreal, Quebec
• Nigel Edwards, Chief Executive, The Nuffield Trust, UK, London
• David Entwistle, President and CEO, Stanford Health Care, Stanford, CA
• Hans Erik Henriksen, CEO, Healthcare Denmark, Denmark, Odense
• Gary Kaplan, Chairman and CEO, Virginia Mason Medical Center, Seattle, MA
• Dr. Daniel Kraft, Faculty Chair for Medicine & Neuroscience and Chair of Exponential Medicine, Singularity University, US, Moffet Field, CA
• Prof. Ernst J. Kuipers, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Erasmus Medical Center, Netherlands, Rotterdam
• Wright Lassiter, CEO, Henry Ford Health System, Detroit, MI
• Prof. Christoph A. Meier, Chief Medical Officer, University Hospital Basel, Switzerland, Basel
• Sir Jonathan Michael, Healthcare Consultant, Former Chief Executive, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, UK, Godalming, Surrey
• Mr. Ralph W. Muller, CEO, University of Pennsylvania Health System, Philadelphia, PA
• Dr. Paul Rothman, Dean of the Medical Faculty and CEO, Johns Hopkins Medicine, Baltimore, MD

You can click here to read more about the summit. Photos of the event can be found here.