Berkowitz Living Laboratory Collaboration

Established in 1782, Harvard Medical School (HMS) is a global leader in medical education and biomedical research, with a deep and historic commitment to alleviating human suffering caused by disease. Its network of 15 affiliated hospitals and institutes and approximately 12,000 members of the Faculty of Medicine represents the greatest concentration of medical talent in the world.

Led by inaugural chair Zak Kohane, MD, PhD, the Department of Biomedical Informatics (DBMI) develops the methods, tools, and infrastructure required for a new generation of biomedical investigators and care providers to move biomedicine, writ large, rapidly forward by taking full advantage of the insight and precision offered by these enormous data resources. Kohane has extensive experience converting data rapidly to find new cures, provide new diagnoses, and deliver better care. After establishing the Undiagnosed Diseases Network (UDN) to bring together clinical and research experts to solve the most challenging medical mysteries, he supported the launch of the Network of Enigmatic Exceptional Responders (NEER) at DBMI. NEER currently works to understand why some patients have had a unique response to cancer treatments that were not effective for most other patients. Just as detailed study of rare diseases is illuminating basic biology in a way that informs larger disease populations, early study of exceptional responders promises to reveal new insights into tumor heterogeneity, overcoming heterogeneity-imposed therapeutic barriers, enabling more sophisticated pre-trial patient screening, and enriching genomic profiling studies.

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Established in 1911, Clalit Health Services (CHS) is the largest provider of public and semi-private health services in Israel, covering approximately 4 million individuals—over half of the population of Israel. Clalit employs 40,000 people who operate 1,500 clinics, 450 pharmacies, 90 emergency medical centers, 14 major hospital centers, 40 children’s healthcare centers, 40 women’s healthcare centers, 58 infant healthcare centers, 55 alternative therapy centers and 90 dental-care centers. Clalit is a leading center for medical research and innovation, developing and implementing medical technologies and practices with worldwide impact.

In 2010, Clalit Health Services established the Clalit Research Institute (CRI), with the mission of turning Clalit’s unique comprehensive integrated lifetime electronic health record (EHR) data on 4.5 million individuals into decision-making insights that can be translated into policies for transforming healthcare delivery and clinical practice. Tools developed by CRI have enabled innovative clinical interventions and a shift in the focus of care to preventative and proactive initiatives. Led by founding director Professor Ran Balicer, MD, PhD, MPH, CRI’s goal is to move from reactive, therapeutic care to proactive, preventive care, and to replace a paternalistic paradigm with participatory and patient-centered care delivery. CRI has been recognized by the WHO and designated a WHO Collaborating Centre on Noncommunicable Diseases Research, Prevention and Control.