Six international companies are relocating to Boston as part of an artificial intelligence health care accelerator backed by the Middle East’s largest medical centre.
Sheba Medical Center in Israel — which has the world’s first AI-powered emergency department — first announced its new U.S. endeavour last May. Now it has officially launched the ARC Innovation Boston location in the city’s downtown, a “soft landing pad” for international startups working to transform the delivery of health care through AI and digital solutions.
The Boston hub is joining a network of existing ARC (Accelerate, Redesign, Collaborate) programs in London, Melbourne, Singapore, Berlin and New Zealand.
It’s expected to leverage Massachusetts’ world-class health care institutions, clinical research and tech innovation with Sheba Medical Centre’s ARC methodology and global platform.
“The launch of ARC Landing Boston marks the start of a new era of medical innovation,” said Dr. Yonatan Keschner, CEO of the Boston location. “Our first cohort of startups are developing technologies that will address some of the greatest medical challenges and reinvent the future of healthcare.”
The companies setting up shop in Boston as part of the first U.S. cohort are:
- XEOS (founded in 2019) — Real-time molecular imaging in the operating room to help surgeons confirm complete tumour removal and improve surgical outcomes.
- UltraSight (founded in 2018) — AI-driven software that makes high-quality cardiac ultrasound accessible anywhere — designed for clinicians who aren’t cardiac sonographers but routinely evaluate and manage patients.
- FeelBetter (founded in 2019) — AI-powered pharmacotherapy platform for medication management, designed to improve outcomes, efficiency and financial performance for health care organisations.
- Modulight (founded in 2022) — Developing first-of-its-kind therapy (precise control of brain activity using light) to treat severe neurological disorders.
- custoMED (founded in 2023) — Combining AI, 3D printing and clinical expertise to empower orthopaedic surgeons to design and produce personalised surgical guides and implants from standard imaging.
- Nuri Braintech (founded in 2024) — The first emotion brain-computer interface designed for psychiatry, breakthrough therapeutic approach for post-traumatic stress disorder and other treatment-resistant mental illnesses.
Collectively, the companies have so far raised $84.9 million. The Sheba ARC team is providing physical work space in downtown Boston and facilitating connections with the state’s health care ecosystem, as well as operational support.
Professor Eyal Zimlichman — who serves as deputy director general, chief medical officer, chief innovation officer and ARC co-founder at Sheba Medical Center — previously told MassLive that patients in Massachusetts will have the opportunity to experience the technologies before the rest of the world, as the companies will need to test and deploy their work with local hospitals and providers.
Last fall, the program was in the process of signing memorandums of understanding with “a very large number” of Massachusetts providers, in not just Boston, but also the western part of the state and the north and south shores.