Dr. Tal Patalon, MD, LL.B, MBA - From Israel

For the past decade I have worked at the point where clinical medicine meets data, technology and policy. I headed the Research and Innovation Center at Maccabi Healthcare Services, one of Israel’s largest health organizations. Building an interdisciplinary team of physicians, researchers, data scientists, epidemiologists and tech professionals allowed us to publish studies in publications such as Science, the BMJ, the Lancet and Nature, and, more importantly, to influence health policy around the world. Believing in cross-border collaborations, I led the first R&D agreements between Israel, the UAE and Bahrain, and built research partnerships with leading health organizations worldwide. In 2024, I was honored to be named by Nature as one of four global changemakers confronting health challenges through big data and AI.

Acknowledging the immense promise of AI-driven risk-based medicine, I founded Medāna, a health AI company that helps healthcare organizations integrate artificial intelligence safely, ethically and effectively, while allowing a paradigm shift to mitigate the risk, and not just the disease and its complications.
Today, I advise healthcare systems, companies and investors on questions that sit between medicine, law, regulation and data science. I write on healthcare innovation as a Forbes.com contributor, have hosted the podcast A Matter of Life and Death, where I was fortunate to interview some of the leading figures in health and research today, and have lectured on Health, Big Data and Ethics for MBA students.

I still see patients, as a specialist in both family medicine and emergency medicine. Medicine is changing faster now than at any point in my career. The tools might be new, but relationships and the responsibility are not.
My path to all of this began in Budapest, where I completed my MD at Semmelweis University. In Israel, I specialized in family medicine and then in emergency medicine and was certified in palliative medicine. Along the way I completed a law degree, was admitted to the bar, and earned an MBA in healthcare innovation. I founded a nonprofit delivering affordable medications, headed hospital departments in palliative care and short stay, and led a hospital innovation department before moving into research leadership and consulting. None of these fields replaced the others. Each one sharpened the rest.

Budapest was where I began my studies, in a new language, culture and system, and the discipline it demanded carried me through everything that followed. My advice to students is not complicated. Learn science thoroughly; it ages better than any technology. Stay curious beyond the borders of university-taught medicine; the most interesting problems live between disciplines. And never lose contact with patients. Everything I have built in research, data and AI began with what I learned at the bedside, practicing service as a way of life.