New Collaboration with Sheba Medical Center will qualify nurses to work in a digital environment.

Collaboration between HIT Holon Institute of Technology, the teaching authority of the Sheba Medical Center, and the Sheba-BEYOND virtual hospital will allow training nurses in Israel and around the world to work in a digital environment the teaching authority of the Sheba Medical Center and the Sheba-BEYOND virtual hospital will allow training nurses in Israel and around the world to work in a digital environment.

Digitalization, especially in the health world, dramatically affects the work of nurses. This collaboration is based on the ERASMUS+ Capacity Building " - a program of the European Union that aims to promote skills development in medical informatics among nurses and nursing students - to work in a digital environment and remote medicine. Together with European academic institutions, it will allow nursing students to train in a digital environment, particularly telemedicine.

This is all part of the international "NURIC" project financed by the Erasmus+ program of the European Union. The Department of Digital Medical Technologies team headed by Dr. Hadas Lewy will lead its management in Israel. It includes Dr. Refael Barkan, V.P. for Innovation Entrepreneurship and Internationalization, and Dr. Thomas Carpati, Head of the multidisciplinary Healthcare analytics lab.

 Department of Digital Medical Technologies On behalf of the Sheba Medical Center, the project is led by Prof. Gadi Segal, Dr. Amir Greenberg, Dr. Peles Bortz, Ms. Vered Robinson, and Ms. Hila Hakim, chief nurse at the virtual hospital.

As part of the project, a professional training program will be developed for nursing students, increasing the job availability of nurses in various positions involving digital technologies, supporting their personal development, and encouraging advanced health services.

 The project is adapted to the local needs in Israel and Europe. It will include the execution of pilot programs and evaluations of short courses and intensive certificate courses in medical informatics for nursing, which will be implemented in each country.

Dr. Refael Barkan, HIT Vice President for Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Internationalization: "Through this collaboration, we will create innovative digital study programs (academic and non-academic) for professionals in the world of nursing, which will advance the nursing profession, better access technologies, with an emphasis on information technologies and AI, for the benefit of streamlining the important work of nurses in hospitals and community medicine alike."

Prof. Gadi Segal, head of the teaching authority at the Sheba Medical Center: "We are proud to lead a unique, initial, and international collaboration to train the nursing workforce for a modern digital work environment, which is required in light of the digital transformation processes in health services. We will continue to expand the activities of the Sheba Teaching Authority and the Sheba-BEYOND virtual hospital for the benefit of groundbreaking international collaborations that advance the health care system in Israel.'

The Planning and Budgeting Committee of the Higher Education Council congratulated the initiative of HIT in collaboration with Sheba: "The projects that were funded by the Erasmus+ program were selected from over thousands of proposals submitted from all over the world in a competitive judging process, which requires compliance with strict quality standards and high academic requirements. All of this testifies to the quality of the winning projects and their high potential to advance the higher education system in Israel," said Prof. Yoseph Mekori., Chairman of the Planning and Budgeting Committee.

Later, the PBC chairman pointed out the program's uniqueness in that it is one of the first to engage in what is called Nursing Informatics and forces the nurses to leave the usual treatment routines and make extensive use of medical information technologies.

The project is another excellent example of the fruits of the successful collaboration between HIT as a leading academic institution in the field of digital medicine and the leading medical center in Israel, which has a unique multidisciplinary teaching authority - Sheba Tel Hashomer.