Clalit Health Services, Israel’s largest health organisation, has opened Lavi Clinic in Beersheba as the country’s first Clinic of the Future. Situated in the heart of Beersheba’s Innovation District, the facility serves as a living laboratory for proactive, personalised, and technology-enabled community medicine, with innovations developed in the south intended for eventual scaling across Clalit’s national network.
The clinic began operating three months ago and was formally inaugurated this week. Attendees included Beersheba Mayor Ruvik Danilovich, Clalit’s Chief Innovation Officer Professor Ran Balicer, Clalit Chairman Maj. Gen. (res.) Yohanan Locker, Soroka Medical Center CEO Professor Shlomi Codish, Clalit Southern District Director Hedva Emuna, members of the district’s leadership, and the clinic’s staff.
A model shaped by necessity
Lavi Clinic is managed by Dr Assi Cicurel, Head of Family Medicine for Clalit Southern District, who initiated and developed the model. The concept arose from an understanding of major national challenges facing healthcare systems. Dr Cicurel explains: “The ageing population, the rise in chronic diseases, and the growing expectation for an advanced standard of service, is a reality that requires the system to ‘do more with less’.”
The opening follows three years of planning and development, including during a period of war and repeated security challenges. “After three years of planning, wars, an Iranian missile that fell in the yard near the clinic, and other challenges, the clinic is finally operating. We are proud to treat our first patients and lead in providing human, personalised, proactive medicine, combined with advanced technologies,” Cicurel said.
Dr Cicurel added: “Remote medicine, self-service medicine, activating patients, advanced home monitoring, and a wealth of new technologies are perhaps the background, while the foundation is personal service, deep familiarity with patients, and leading their care by a multidisciplinary team that joins forces in treating patients. One of the principles is proactive-preventive medicine and balancing stable chronic diseases near the workplace. We found that people tend to cooperate with preventive medicine when it is carried out on ordinary days, and at the same time we adapt the clinic to the needs of the local community, with health promotion and preventive activities also at the community level.”
Technology in service of human care
The clinic combines advanced technologies with a different approach to the relationship between patients and their healthcare teams. Technologies in use include a service robot, an automated urine testing station, and devices for taking vital measurements. Clalit stresses that the core of the model lies not in the technology itself but in the new processes around it, with dedicated conversations and questionnaires helping build a deeper understanding of patients’ lifestyles. Preventive medicine and chronic disease management become more accessible, with aspects of care brought closer to patients’ workplaces and daily routines.
Emuna, Director of Clalit’s Southern District, said: “Lavi is not just a clinic. It is a statement of intent. We are taking Clalit’s human, professional and personalised care, and together with the leading specialist physicians, advancing the clinic with the surrounding team, proactive, personalised, innovative medicine integrated with AI. At the clinic, it is important for us to incorporate innovative, groundbreaking processes to ensure that residents of the south enjoy the most advanced medicine available.”
Clalit’s Chief Innovation Officer, Professor Balicer, said the decision to develop the model in Beersheba reflects a broader vision of bringing healthcare innovation from Israel’s periphery to the entire country and the world. “David Ben-Gurion said that ‘In the Negev, the people of Israel and their state will be tested.’ Our vision was to grow innovation from community medicine, based on the understanding that the true power to lead deep and meaningful change lies in the people who lead it and are not deterred by challenges. And the people of the Southern District embrace every challenge and are happy to be pioneers,” he said.
Ben-Gurion added: “Even in an era of a technological leap and artificial intelligence, the goal is not to replace the human factor, but to use technology to free up our caregivers’ most valuable resource, time and attention. Progress is intended to serve the caregiver and the patient, free us from technical burdens, and enable community medicine to be more attentive, compassionate, and have a deeper personal touch.”