From the Negev to the Future of Healthcare: Clalit Opens Israel’s First “Clinic of the Future”
What if the future of medicine was not only being shaped in major hospitals, but also in the neighborhoods and everyday environments where patients live? This is the vision behind Clalit Health Services’ new Lavi Clinic in Beersheba, in Israel’s Negev, inaugurated this week and presented as the country’s first “Clinic of the Future.”
Located in the heart of Beersheba’s Innovation District, the clinic has been operating for three months and is designed as a laboratory for testing new approaches to community healthcare. Models developed in southern Israel are ultimately expected to be scaled across Clalit’s nationwide network.
The project is the result of three years of planning and development, carried out amid war and repeated security challenges. The clinic is headed by Dr. Assi Cicurel, Head of Family Medicine for Clalit’s Southern District, who initiated and developed the model.
“The aging population, the rise in chronic diseases and growing expectations for higher standards of service are forcing healthcare systems to do more with less,” he explains.
Technology as a tool, not an end in itself
Lavi Clinic brings together a range of technologies designed to transform the way a traditional community clinic operates. Its facilities include a service robot, an automated urine-testing station and devices for measuring vital signs.
The clinic also relies on telemedicine, advanced home monitoring and digital tools designed to give patients a more active role in managing their own health.
But for Clalit, the innovation is not limited to the technology itself. The real change lies in how care is organized.
Dedicated questionnaires and conversations are used to give medical teams a deeper understanding of patients’ lifestyles and daily habits. The aim is to develop a more proactive approach to healthcare, identifying potential risks before they develop into serious conditions rather than focusing solely on treatment once illness occurs.
Chronic disease management is also designed to fit more closely into patients’ daily lives, including by bringing aspects of care closer to their workplaces.
“Remote medicine, patient autonomy, advanced home monitoring and new technologies may be the backdrop. But the foundation remains personalized service, a deep understanding of patients and their care being led by a multidisciplinary team,” Dr. Cicurel says.
Beersheba as a laboratory for Israeli healthcare
The choice of Beersheba is not accidental. The city has emerged in recent years as one of Israel’s leading hubs for cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and medical technology.
For Clalit, developing this new generation of community healthcare in the south is also a way of demonstrating that innovation does not have to be concentrated in the country’s central region.
“Lavi is not just a clinic. It is a statement of intent,” says Hedva Emuna, Director of Clalit’s Southern District. The goal, she explains, is to combine Clalit’s personalized approach to care with “proactive, innovative medicine integrated with artificial intelligence.”
The model is also intended to respond to the specific needs of the local community, including through health promotion and preventive healthcare initiatives at the community level.
Giving doctors more time for patients
At the heart of the transformation is a simple idea: artificial intelligence and automation should not replace healthcare professionals, but allow them to spend more time with their patients.
For Prof. Ran Balicer, Clalit’s Chief Innovation Officer, this is precisely the broader goal of the digital transformation of healthcare.
“Even in an era of technological breakthroughs and artificial intelligence, the goal is not to replace the human factor, but to use technology to free up caregivers’ most valuable resource: their time and attention,” he says.
The model developed in Beersheba could therefore become a large-scale test of a new form of community healthcare, in which digital tools take over part of the technical and administrative workload while medical teams focus more closely on prevention, patient support and the human relationship at the heart of care.
Caroline Haïat
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