Israel's Sheba Medical Center becomes OpenAI's first hospital partner outside the US

Sheba Medical Center at Tel HaShomer, Israel's largest hospital, signed a strategic agreement with OpenAI that makes it the first hospital outside the United States to use the company's dedicated healthcare models, Ynetnews and Calcalist reported on 28 July 2026. Sheba announced the partnership the same week, and JNS reported on it on 30 July.

The deal covers OpenAI for Healthcare and ChatGPT Health, products launched in January 2026 and until then available at only a handful of American hospitals. Clinicians at Sheba will be able to describe a patient's case and receive summaries of relevant research, clinical guidelines and public-health sources, with every answer carrying citations, journal names and publication dates so that doctors can check the evidence themselves. The hospital can also load its own protocols, treatment pathways and policies so that answers reflect its approved standards, and the platform will help with paperwork and other administrative tasks.

As OpenAI's first international hospital partner, Sheba will get early access to new models, feed back research and real-world clinical insights, and work with OpenAI to adapt the tools to Israel's health system. The hospital said OpenAI's models will not be trained on Sheba's data, that patient information will remain protected and that all medical decisions stay with its staff.

The agreement was driven by ARC, Sheba's innovation centre, which was founded in 2019 and has already brought tools such as Aidoc's AI imaging analysis and an automated emergency-room documentation system into daily use. Professor Eyal Zimlichman, Sheba's chief innovation and AI officer and the founder of ARC, said the goal is to build a fully AI-powered hospital in which technology frees clinicians to spend more time with patients.