Sheba Medical Center: The Tel Hashomer City of Health, #7 in the World and Israel's Largest Hospital
1,580 beds. #7 in Newsweek's 2026 World's Best Hospitals — highest ever for an Israeli institution. Founded 1948 as Army Hospital No. 5; civilian 1953 under Dr. Chaim Sheba. Six specialized hospitals on one campus. ARC Innovation Center; Project K, world's first AI ED.
Israeli Health & Biotech | Olam.business
Sheba Medical Center at Tel HaShomer, Ramat Gan, is the largest and most comprehensive medical center in the Middle East — a 1,580-bed academic campus affiliated with Tel Aviv University that Newsweek ranked seventh globally in its 2026 World's Best Hospitals list, the highest position ever held by an Israeli institution. Established 1948 as Army Hospital No. 5 to treat casualties of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Sheba became civilian in 1953 under Dr. Chaim Sheba, and now operates six specialized hospitals — acute, rehabilitation, children's, cancer, geriatric, and virtual — on a single campus known as the City of Health.
Snapshot
| Location | Tel HaShomer, Ramat Gan (Tel Aviv District), Israel |
| Founded | 1948 (as Army Hospital No. 5); civilian 1953 under Dr. Chaim Sheba |
| Beds | 1,580 — largest hospital in Israel |
| Affiliated university | Tel Aviv University |
| Director General / CEO | Prof. Yitshak Kreiss |
| VP AI & Digital Transformation | Prof. Eyal Zimlichman (Director, ARC Innovation Center) |
| Newsweek World's Best Hospitals 2026 | #7 globally — highest ever for an Israeli institution; 8 consecutive years in the top 10 |
| Newsweek Smart Hospitals 2026 | #9 globally — 5th consecutive year in the top ranks |
| Countries served | 100+ (medical tourism) |
| Innovation platform | ARC (Accelerate Redesign Collaborate) Innovation Center |
The 1948 Origins
Sheba was established in 1948 as Israel's first military hospital, founded to treat casualties of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War in a cluster of abandoned British Mandate–era barracks. It was originally designated Army Hospital No. 5. David Ben-Gurion renamed it Tel HaShomer Hospital during the early state period. In 1953 the hospital transferred to civilian control and Dr. Chaim Sheba, a Romanian-born physician who had served as Surgeon General of the Israel Defense Forces, was named director. Following Dr. Sheba's death, the institution was renamed in his honor.
The founding architecture — repurposed Mandate barracks — evolved across seven decades into a purpose-built academic campus. The current form: a single continuous site spanning acute care, rehabilitation, oncology, pediatrics, geriatrics, and a virtual hospital, all operating under one director general.
The City of Health
Sheba operates as six specialized hospitals sharing one physical footprint. The Acute Care Hospital handles internal medicine, surgery, cardiology, neurology, and the emergency complex. The Edmond and Lily Safra Children's Hospital is a tertiary pediatric referral center. The Rehabilitation Hospital — including spinal cord, brain injury, and orthopedic rehabilitation — is the largest facility of its kind in Israel. The Rosenfeld Cancer Center (Institute of Oncology) anchors the cancer program. The Geriatric Hospital covers extended geriatric care and cognitive medicine. The Virtual Hospital — launched during the COVID period and expanded since — delivers remote monitoring, telemedicine, and hospital-at-home protocols across Israeli patients and international programs.
The campus also includes the Medical Simulation Center (MSR), one of the largest simulation training facilities globally, and the National Center for Disaster Response — the operational hub for Israel's medical response to mass-casualty events, pandemic outbreaks, and international disaster deployments.
ARC and the AI Transformation
The ARC (Accelerate Redesign Collaborate) Innovation Center is Sheba's translational and commercialization platform, directed by Prof. Eyal Zimlichman, who also serves as Sheba's VP of AI and Digital Transformation. ARC operates as an ecosystem — clinical departments, technology partners, corporate collaborators, startups — with the express purpose of taking clinical problems from the floor of the hospital, structuring them as data-and-AI problems, and returning implemented solutions to care.
The signature initiative is Project K — the world's first AI-powered emergency department, which automatically gathers patient medical histories, suggests relevant diagnostic tests, and helps clinicians prioritize critical cases. ARC has also anchored Sheba's precision medicine infrastructure, its digital pathology program, and multiple international partnerships extending across the EU, the United States, the Gulf, Singapore, Australia, and Albania.
The Global Rankings Trajectory
Sheba's position on the Newsweek World's Best Hospitals list has climbed steadily. 2023: 10th. 2024: 9th. 2025: 8th. 2026: 7th — the highest ever position for an Israeli or Asian hospital, and the eighth consecutive year Sheba has held a top-10 position. In the 2026 Newsweek/Statista World's Best Smart Hospitals ranking, Sheba placed 9th — its fifth consecutive year in the top ranks, and the only Israeli hospital to consistently compete alongside the Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Johns Hopkins.
The 2026 evaluation covered more than 2,400 hospitals across 30 countries and drew on physician recommendations, patient survey results, hospital quality metrics, and Statista's assessment of patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs).
Post-October 7
Sheba's role since October 7, 2023 has extended beyond conventional acute care. The hospital served as a primary receiving center for wounded soldiers evacuated from combat zones and for hostages released under the successive hostage-return operations — including "Operation Returning Home" in October 2025, for which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the campus to review preparations. Sheba's National Center for Disaster Response coordinated multi-hospital surge protocols across the Israeli system through the acute phase of the war.
Leadership
Prof. Yitshak Kreiss — Director General and CEO. A physician and former IDF Surgeon General (2013–2015), Kreiss has led Sheba's international expansion and the AI/digital transformation agenda. He has framed Sheba's global ranking as "proof that Israel's future lies in its creativity and excellence."
Prof. Eyal Zimlichman — VP of AI and Digital Transformation; Director of ARC Innovation Center. Zimlichman is the operator behind the AI and Data Center and the translational infrastructure that has moved Sheba from an academic hospital into a globally-cited healthcare AI platform.
Why Sheba Matters
Three reasons. First, scale — 1,580 beds, six specialized hospitals, and full clinical coverage make Sheba the operational spine of Israeli tertiary care. Second, ranking — the sustained top-10 Newsweek position, capped at #7 in 2026, gives Israel a globally-cited healthcare benchmark on par with the Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic. Third, ARC and the AI transformation — Sheba is the institutional case study for what an academic medical center becomes when it treats clinical AI as an operating discipline rather than a pilot program.
FAQ
Where is Sheba Medical Center located?
Sheba is located in Tel HaShomer, Ramat Gan, in the Tel Aviv District of Israel. The campus is a purpose-built medical city on a single continuous site.
How large is Sheba?
1,580 beds — the largest hospital in Israel. The campus operates as six specialized hospitals: acute care, rehabilitation, children's (Safra), cancer, geriatric, and virtual.
Who founded Sheba?
The hospital was established in 1948 as Army Hospital No. 5 to treat casualties of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. It was renamed Tel HaShomer Hospital by David Ben-Gurion. In 1953 it became civilian under Dr. Chaim Sheba, and was later renamed in his honor.
Who runs Sheba?
Prof. Yitshak Kreiss is Director General and CEO. Prof. Eyal Zimlichman is VP of AI and Digital Transformation and Director of the ARC Innovation Center.
What is ARC?
ARC (Accelerate Redesign Collaborate) is Sheba's innovation center — the translational platform that operationalizes clinical AI, digital health, and precision medicine across the campus. ARC anchored Project K, the world's first AI-powered emergency department.
How does Sheba rank globally?
Sheba is ranked #7 in Newsweek's 2026 World's Best Hospitals — the highest position ever held by an Israeli institution, and the eighth consecutive year in the global top 10. It is ranked #9 in Newsweek's 2026 World's Best Smart Hospitals.
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