With more than a decade of hybrid experience spanning the clinical, entrepreneurial and academic worlds of healthcare, Dr. Shafran-Tikva is committed to advancing innovation and entrepreneurship in healthcare and adding long-term value to digital health and medical device startups.

Currently as CEO of the Ruth Vrobel Foundation, which provides the missing and much needed psycho-social response for chronic patients, and as Director of the Center for Research & Innovation in Nursing at Hadassah, Sigal is leading the design and execution of clinical trials using big data and mentors & advises startups at the Hadassah Accelerator powered by IBM Alpha Zone. After having held senior management positions at Hadassah and the MoH, she transitioned into the business and academic worlds of HealthTech, where she co-founded iCough, provides executive training for senior hospital staff and founded a new Master’s in “Health Informatics” with the Jerusalem College of Technology, University of Toronto and IBM.

She teaches at the Hebrew University and JCT and is a member of Merage and the 8400 Health Network, through which she participated in a HealthTech leadership program at Harvard Business School.

Sigal holds a PhD in Public Health and a certificate in Biodesign – Medical Innovation from the Hebrew University, has earned two Master’s degrees from Ben Gurion University, and studied Managing Innovation in Organizations at the Technion.