AFMDA: "Our Mission: Saving Lives in Israel"

Wide eyed, I watched the ambulances roll out. The computer screens spilt into live feeds from the event, news reals, and statistics. The maps kept on updating with exact locations of ambulances and paramedics, analyzing and re-analyzing the precise needs, as data kept flowing in.

“MDA works by a strict code of procedures and ethics. We must be able to reach every place and treat everyone, in every possible situation that arises, be it health emergencies, terror attacks, missile attacks, or natural disasters,” MDA Director-General Eli Bin explains.

Ido Rosenblat, chief information officer (CIO), picks up the conversation. “In Israel there is no such thing as a typical day. I arrived at 2:30 a.m. because of an emergency plane landing at Ben Gurion Airport that required massive resources. A couple of hours later there was a tragic private plane crash, and then two soldiers were stabbed by a terrorist, and of course all the usual day-to-day things like accidents, illnesses, hospital transfers, and such. We are always on alert, always ready.”

Playing a life and death game of chess

In 2006, during the Second Lebanon War, Israel found itself dealing with multiple, simultaneous attack arenas in proximity. The American-developed system struggled, and the operators found themselves reverting to pen and paper to try and make sense of the events in real time and comprehend the best way to divide the resources between the sites.

“We were playing a game of chess and found ourselves lagging behind. It was a matter of life and death, in the most literal way possible, and something needed to change,” recalls Rosenblat.

An impossible equation that has to be solved

“Our needs arise from the field, and we don’t have the luxury to adapt slowly. We are constantly running forward, changing, adapting, and growing,” says Bin.

MDA realized it needed its own computer-aided system to meet its unique needs and set forth, building a technological platform based on machine learning. Today, Rosenblat, himself a Medevac paramedic, leads a team of 50 full-time programmers and coders, who use artificial intelligence to continually upgrade its capabilities.

“We are constantly working in multiple arenas and sites, diverting resources from one place to the other. We don't have the time it needs for humans to do the math,” Rosenblat elaborates. “It's an impossible equation, that involves 10 different regions covering the entire country, 1,300 ambulances, 600 Medicycles, 3,200 employees, 30,000 volunteers, 6,000 defibrillators, hospital availability, roadworks, and the constant need to make sure that no section is abandoned.

“We solved this equation by building a platform that connects the entire country together to one machine learning-based network that decides how the situation is going to be played, taking into account real life changes as soon as they occur. We are on the scene within minutes of the event. Of any event.”

“Take for example the Covid years,” Bin continues. “We were on the front lines, opening testing and vaccinating centers, transporting the ill. In a few hours we were up and running, with whatever was needed at that point in the pandemic.” During the height of the pandemic, MDA went from receiving 8,000 calls a day to 22,000 and was able to expand its systems and resources to meet the demand without a glitch.

“It’s the same any time we are needed either in Israel or coping with international catastrophes or complex situations involving Israelis abroad,” says Bin. “We reach wherever we are needed as soon as we possibly can.”

An emergency vehicle is dispatched every 24 seconds

“The system now allows us to pinpoint locations, a game changer in situations where every second counts," Rosenblat points out. “It knows automatically when to give instructions to fire up a Medevac helicopter, and when to send a Medicycle first responder. We have volunteers who take the ambulances home with them at night, so that response times are as short as possible. We get 3 million calls annually; that is one call every 10.8 seconds. Every 24 seconds an ambulance or other emergency vehicle is dispatched. The numbers are astounding, and this is during quiet times, with no national catastrophes.”

Calls are answered within one second by trained paramedics and EMTs, with professional assistance given to callers, while emergency responders and vehicles are dispatched instantaneously, arriving in the field only a few minutes after the call has been received. The Israel Fire and Rescue Authority and the Israel Police are now also connected to MDA’s platform. Each can automatically dispatch one another in emergencies. A call to MDA regarding someone injured in a shooting, for example, would automatically summon both an ambulance and police. Likewise, reporting an apartment fire to the Israel Fire and Rescue Service would summon personnel from all three services — firefighters to address the blaze itself, police to control street traffic, and ambulances to treat the injured.

Our mission: saving lives in Israel

When asked what’s next for MDA, Bin replies, “What we’ve achieved is amazing, and it couldn’t have happened without international support from our friends and donors. And yet, for us it is the tip of the iceberg; there is still work to be done on making response time even shorter.” Currently, an ambulance arrives at the scene on average in eight minutes.

“We are also working on improving our aerial capabilities, bringing them to world class standards.” MDA recently partnered with Hatzolah Air, an American aviation organization that provides emergency medical air transport, to improve its medical air evacuation service with faster and stronger helicopters. Recently, one of the helicopters transported a heart for transplant, the first time a helicopter was used for organ delivery in Israel.

“Another project we are working on is trained telemedicine teams,” says Bin, “offering treatment at home, with an objective of lessening the number of hospital transfers and emergency room visits. Preparing MDA for all emergency eventualities is our most desperate need, and the little government funding we receive is nowhere near enough. We desperately need 300 more life support and Mobile Intensive Care ambulances for now, and 1,600 more in the near future.”

All ambulances are sponsored by donors from around the world, the vast majority by Americans.

“Our mission is saving lives in Israel,” Bin continues. “This is a mission that we wake up with, and a mission that we go to sleep with, constantly on our minds and a part of our training and planning culture. We work with an amazing group of people who go above and beyond daily to fulfill this mission, and invaluable donors who support us while working toward this mission.”

This is where American Friends of Magen David (AFMDA) plays a significant role. AFMDA, a nonprofit organization in the United States, is MDA's largest charitable supporter, providing emergency vehicles, equipment, medical supplies, and funding for capital projects, such as the Marcus National Blood Services Center — the world’s first shielded, subterranean blood bank, protecting Israel’s blood supply from missile, biological, and chemical attacks, as well as earthquakes. Learn more >>

Partnered with American Friends of Magen David Adom