The National Digital Program of the Government of Israel

Improve Education by Digital Means

In a world undergoing a digital revolution and experiencing rapid technological changes, adapting the education system to the digital age is critical. We can learn about the centrality of digital education from the agenda of policy makers throughout the world and in leading countries, particularly the fact that it is a permanent component in numerous strategic digital programs.

To improve education by digital means the system as a whole must be addressed – from the learning content, learning mode and use of end user equipment, through the teachers’ role in the classroom and their integration into the digital environment, to the ability to manage the system. The Education Ministry is currently formulating a strategic digital program that will include initiatives with respect to the following components:

Improve the quality of learning and teaching so that graduates of the education system will be equipped with tools suitable for the digital age, while focusing, among other things, on the development of digital learning environments, digital contents, sharing contents and programs between teachers and teachers’ professional development.

Promote management competencies in the education system, at the school and system level, including the development of management platforms and integrating the use of information systems, along with increased engagement with the public, and budget and operating transparency.

Promote innovation in the education field while harnessing all system entities – pupils, teachers and educators, and involving the local startup arena in the aim of creating a discourse and opportunities for technological development.

Another central program is the CHE and PBC multi-year program that focuses, among other things, on innovation in teaching and improving teaching quality. As part of the program, support grants are offered to produce online courses that will provide access to accumulated knowledge in the higher education system to students in Israel and around the world. Also, innovation laboratories will be established for student entrepreneurs to enhance the learning experience on campus. Support will be provided for developing and implementing innovative teaching methods using digital means and advanced technology.

In addition to these components, emphasis will be given to supporting policy and regulation and to cross-government infrastructures - enabling factors for future steps.

“Flipped Class” Model
(in cooperation with the Education Ministry)

This initiative is included in efforts to develop digital learning environments for classroom and distance learning in the aim of adapting the classroom to the digital age. Thus the teacher’s role changes from frontal transmission of the study material to guiding and helping self-study, while pupils shift from studying with the entire class to working in small groups, with the blackboard replaced by digital end devices.

Improve Health by Digital Means

The health system in Israel is currently characterized by polarization between excellence on medical condition indices to a shortage of medical personnel and infrastructures, which make it difficult for the system to meet the challenges of medical care and service to the public. Thus, concurrent with high life expectancy and a low infant mortality rate, the number of beds and nurses in Israel is low compared to OECD countries, and health is increasingly viewed as more of a consumer product than in the past – resulting in a bureaucracy and an interaction with service recipients that do not meet customer expectations.

The Health Ministry, in cooperation with the Bureau, formulated a strategic program to advance digital health which centers on directing the changes in health services to advancing the public health system while preserving its basic values and leveraging its strengths. The program aims to achieve a quantum leap in the health system in Israel, which will enable it to be sustainable, advanced, innovative and continuously improving. It will do so by optimally leveraging the ICT at its disposal in order to improve the health of the population at large.

The program is based on advancing steps in several parallel digital tracks, leading to the implementation and integration of five key changes in the health system: (1) place the patient in the center and direct the system to serve the patient’s needs, with tools that increase patient involvement in managing their health; (2) advance the development and adaptation of tools for individually-customized treatment; (3) shift the focus from treating disease to preventive medicine; (4) increase operating and managerial effectiveness in the health system; (5) improve and streamline communication between the Health Ministry and entities that receive its services.

To support and enable implementation of these digital changes, the Health Ministry is advancing the development of technological infrastructures for an information and communication-based environment, and taking action to adapt the organizational and process infrastructures in the health system to the digital age. Concurrently, the Ministry is developing and strengthening mechanisms for systematically advancing innovation and collaboration in the health system and in the Ministry, and leading a policy to narrow digital gaps among health organizations. These steps will establish the necessary infrastructures for improving the health system in Israel with digital tools.

The Health Ministry is currently taking action to implement the strategic program and to develop additional components of the program.

"Eitan Project"
(led the Health Ministry)

Establish a secure national platform for sharing medical data between treatment entities in health organizations and creating a treatment continuum for the patient in the transition between organizations, and particularly between the community and hospitalization.
The platform capabilities include the ability to convert medical coding in order to enable standardization and machine readability of the information at end points, and overcoming the various data coding languages in health organizations to enable presentation of information to the treating entity in a smart format, highlighting new and relevant information and preventing information overload.
In the future it will be possible to connect infrastructure decision-support applications to “Eitan”, enabling the treating entity to use data accessible in “Eitan” to develop smart algorithms.
Thus, information sharing will help maintain a treatment continuum and provide the correct and precise treatment to the patient. It will also enable translating medical information into insights, preventing medical errors, improving the decision-making process and serving as the basis for medicine adapted to the patients’ needs.