For example, on an average year we deliver 17,500 babies, perform 300,000 images, handle 250,000 visits in our ER, and process 40M lab tests for outpatient services. We have one of the largest clinical data repositories in the country, perhaps the only medical center in the world to have complete medical records and data on continuous care throughout a patient’s life, all stored digitally and securely in EMRs. We are also unique in the link we provide between patient records and bio-samples (body fluids, tissue etc.) stored on-site in our bio-bank.
In addition, our location in the desert has driven us to become pioneers in the area of environmental health. We opened the Negev Environmental Health Research Institute (NEHRI), a research center tasked at examining the effects of hot weather and global warming on human health. At the center we correlate independent micro-weather databases with medical data collected from various sources. The combination of data, with access to real patients living in the desert climate, has positioned Soroka as an ideal environment also for developing and testing solutions that address global warming, and health impact of living in desert conditions.