During Covid-19, Diagnostic Robotics pivoted to aid Israel’s pandemic response

In 2020, many companies were struggling to cope with the sudden change of working remotely or pivoting their entire business online. However, medical AI triage platform Diagnisic Robotics used the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic as a chance to help people - by working directly with the Israeli government.

“The company changed its focus and developed a new product together with the Israeli Ministry of Health to fight the spread of Covid-19 across the country,” explained Diagnostic Robotics’ VP of HR, Galit Minkin.

“Overnight, all the employees in the company stopped their day-to-day assignments and joined the effort to create a solution that includes remote patient progress monitoring, automated patient queries, and alerts about high-risk patients, which allows the Ministry of Health to get daily updates about the spread and progress of the virus.”

Diagnostic Robotics joined CTech as part of its HR Post-Covid series to find out how a private medtech company can work alongside the public sector to quickly help citizens in a time of crisis.

Company Name: Diagnostic Robotics

HR Leader: Galit Minkin

Field of Activity: Digital Health

Number of employees/location- Diagnostic Robotics currently has 100 employees, most of them working from our offices in Tel Aviv, Israel, and a few employees working remotely throughout the United States.

Professional background of HR Manager:

I joined Diagnostic Robotics as the VP of HR almost a year ago to lead the growth of the company and build the HR department. Previously, I have worked in both global recruitment and HR for over a decade. Prior to Diagnostic Robotics, I was the HR Business Partner-EMEA at SimilarWeb for five years.

On a scale of 1-10, how much did the coronavirus pandemic disrupt operations at the company?

I would say 8 - but most of it was positive disruption. At the beginning of the pandemic back in March, the company changed its focus and developed a new product together with the Israeli Ministry of Health to fight the spread of Covid-19 across the country. Overnight, all the employees in the company stopped their day-to-day assignments and joined the effort to create a solution that includes remote patient progress monitoring, automated patient queries, and alerts about high-risk patients, which allows the Ministry of Health to get daily updates about the spread and progress of the virus. Over time, we have moved back to developing our main products, advanced technologies in the field of artificial intelligence that are designed to make healthcare more efficient, effective, and affordable.

What interesting technological tools do you use in employee management/recruitment?

We implemented a new recruiting system (Greenhouse) just before the pandemic started to manage and track recruitment processes in a more efficient way. This had a major impact on our ability to manage processes from a distance, ensuring all the hiring managers are aligned on the current status with candidates and making sure we do not miss any application. We have also invested in creating an online onboarding process, making sure all new employees get the onboarding they need to succeed in their new role and a positive experience when joining us.

To manage internal communication we have also implemented Slack as our internal communication tool, and dropped Whatsapp, allowing us to communicate and stay connected during work hours while making sure our employees maintain a healthy work-life balance.

What positive and/or negative impact did the outbreak have on the human capital of the company?

The major positive impact of the outbreak was the understanding that we have a very strong culture and a high level of commitment; we’ve really seen that all our employees are committed to the success of the company. Back at the beginning of March, when we started the project with the Ministry of Health which required developing a new product on a very tight schedule, our employees’ commitment really shined - they all worked day and night to make this ambitious goal become a reality.

What are the two major challenges you are coping with these days?

The main challenge is connectivity. For the past few months, we have worked in two groups, where each group works two days a week from the office and the rest of the days from home. The two groups haven't met for months, and while meetings and processes have continued, the connectivity between employees from different groups has been impacted, and unfortunately, I don't think we will be able to join the two groups for at least a few more months.

The second challenge is focus. The pandemic definitely opened a few doors for companies in our field, and there were many new opportunities for collaboration opened for us, the challenge is to choose the ones that are right for our growth and that go along with our vision and values.

Are you actively recruiting? If so, what is the process and where can the applicants find you?

We are actively recruiting for several roles in Israel and the U.S. All open positions and descriptions can be found on the career page on our website. The hiring process involves interviews with different stakeholders, all done online, and at the last stage, we invite the candidates to meet the team and see the offices.

Which changes forced upon you by the circumstances will stay in place after Covid-19 is over, and which are you most eager to revert back to normal?

When Covid-19 is over, our teams will continue to work from home in some capacity as we see it allows for much-needed flexibility for everyone. Many of the communication routines we’ve implemented will remain and probably some of the welfare activities, for example, the company-wide yoga class we have every Thursday.

From a personal perspective, I am looking forward to the day we will be able to revert back to how it was before the pandemic, I even miss the little things such as the happy hour with everyone at the office at the same time, casually making “small talk” and having fun.