Israel launches huge digital health project
Xinhua,March 25, 2018 Adjust font size:
JERUSALEM, March 25 (Xinhua) -- Israel approved on Sunday a huge plan to digitize the health records of its 9 million citizen population and make them available for academic and industry researchers.
According to a statement released by the Prime Minister's Office, under the so-called "mosaic" plan, the government will collect data on the health status of volunteers.
As part of the plan, when a person undergoes medical checkups, he or she would be asked for their consent to contribute anonymous blood and DNA samples to a national bank.
The bank would be made available for Israeli and international researchers from universities and the commercial companies.
"This is a great asset and we want to make it available to researchers, developers and companies in order to receive two things: one is preventive medicine, and the second is personal medicine tailored to each individual," Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his cabinet.
"We are developing the industries of tomorrow. In effect these are the industries of today," he said. Enditem