Aussie health experts travel to Israel for Covid insights

PROFESSOR SHARON LEWIN says learning about Israel’s management of big data in real-time is top of the list. SHARON BERGER reports.

One of Israel’s biggest assets during the Covid pandemic was how quickly medical researchers were able to share big data with the government, resulting in public health strategies that were one step ahead of the rest of the world.

The Israelis were sharing data only a week old, while Australian big data systems can often translate to a delay of six to twelve months, infectious diseases expert Professor Sharon Lewin, who co-chairs the National COVID-19 Health and Research Advisory Committee, told The Jewish Independent.

Next week Professor Lewin will head a delegation of senior Australia medical professional to Israel, where one of its primary goals will be to learn how the Israeli government and medical institutions are able to manage big data in real time, and try to implement that in Australia.

The 15-member delegation has been organised by AUSiMED, a not-for-profit organisation fostering medical research collaboration and knowledge transfer between Australia and Israel.

In addition to Professor Lewin, a board member of Ausimed and director of the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, the delegates will include NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant and Prof Allen Cheng, former co-chair of the ATAGI Covid-19 Working Group.

Professor Lewin believes that getting access to Israel’s big data management can help Australia better respond to infectious diseases and pandemics in the future.

In particular, she notes the delegation's interest in the ongoing exchanges between academic and government bodies which allows for Israeli academics to utilise and publish current government derived data.