WoW Woman in FemTech | Tamar Tavory, Digital Health Attorney at Yigal Arnon & Co.

Tamar Tavory is a digital health attorney, special counsel at Yigal Arnon & Co. law firm.

Yigal Arnon & Co. is one of Israel’s premier law firms and is ranked consistently as one of Israel’s leading law firms by domestic and international publications. It has highly specialized life sciences and digital health practice.

Tamar, tell us a bit about your background and your projects so far.

I am a digital health attorney, special counsel at Yigal Arnon Law firm. After graduating from Law school, I joined the Israeli Defense Forces as a lawyer (in mandatory service and then as a career officer).

In my last position, I was the deputy head of the department that provides legal advice to the military, and in particular to the IC4 directorate, the intelligence directorate, and the Medical Corps. While in the army, I got my LLM degree at the Judge Advocate Legal Center and school, Charlottesville, Virginia, where I learned about the US healthcare system and regulation.

My favourite position was as head legal advisor to the medical corps where I initiated and shaped regulation and policy and advised health care leaders, promoting soldiers’ health and well-being. Later, I joined Yigal Arnon Law firm, and since then I have been advising Israeli health tech companies and International firms on healthcare regulation and unique digital health matters, such as telehealth, clinical research, big data, and Artificial Intelligence (AI). COVID-19 provided some fascinating legal and ethical questions.

I’ve also been teaching a course about law and medicine at Tel Aviv University in the MBA program for healthcare leaders, initiated by the Ministry of Health. In addition, I write regularly on legal issues deriving from digital health and femtech. 

How did you get into this industry? Has it been an easy industry to get into or have you had many challenges?

My first legal job was advising the IDF Medical Corps. I felt I was influencing patients’ health care and I got to know very well the healthcare system, main players, and regulations. My first digital health question, I suppose, was when a doctor asked me if he can take a photo of a soldier’s wound and send it to a remote specialist via e-mail. That was ages ago when we did not yet have smartphones. Women’s unique health needs were raised as we were examining how to enable female soldiers to join combat training, without causing them damages due to physiological differences between women and men. Since then, as technology sped up, legal digital health issues became more and more complicated. In recent years technological advances -- medical applications, IOTs, big data, artificial intelligence -- and their legal implications, grew. As I began working in Yigal Aron law firm as a special counsel, I learned more about the digital health industry and its needs in an ever-changing surrounding.

Israel has a vibrant digital health ecosystem, which includes over 500 active digital health companies, of which over 100 are femtech companies, 4 Health management organizations whose members include almost the entire population of Israel, and well-known public and private hospitals as well as local VCs, innovation hubs, and pharma and medical device companies. 

As a lawyer, it was a challenge getting involved in the industry and understanding the different players’ needs. The Israeli healthcare system’s sense of community, and the different cooperation encouraged by the government, helped me in finding my way and learning this special ecosystem.

How long did it take you to be where you are now? What was the biggest obstacle? What are the challenges of being in the industry you are in? 

It took me about 20 years to establish myself as a lawyer specializing in healthcare law. I believe lawyers need to get to know the market, its needs, its trends, to understand its requirements, and to find creative ways to achieve the clients’ goals, often in an uncertain regulatory area.   

What are your biggest achievements to date?

In my last position in the army, I managed 60 legal advisors and loved every minute of it. Later on, the shift I’ve made from the public to the private sector, leaping to unknown territory, was a meaningful step in my career and I’m definitely enjoying the road taken.

What are the projects you are currently working on?

I recently finished or am about to finish two legal research projects that deal with the most exciting trends of health tech: Femtech and AI. Together with my colleague Dr Itamar Netzer, a gynaecologist, and femtech advisor, we published an article about innovation and women’s health. The article was intended as a resource for investors and entrepreneurs in the femtech industry.

A second article, co-authored with my colleague, adv. Roy Keidar will be published later this year. It deals with the implementation of AI in the medical field, and the regulatory and ethical challenges deriving from it -  data accumulation and privacy, black box,  AI bias, learning abilities of algorithm and software as a medical device. [Keidar Roy & Tavory Tamar, “Legal and Regulatory Aspects of AI in Medicine” in Emerging Technologies: The Israeli Perspective (Lior Zemer, Dov Greenbaum and Aviv Gaon, eds, Nevo 2021) (Heb) to be published.]

Is the #WomenInTech movement important to you and if yes, why? 

Women in tech cannot be underrated. As a mother of three young girls, I see it as a crucial element in their education and future. Moreover, I think #WomenInTech can have a meaningful contribution to promoting investments in areas neglected and overlooked before, such as women’s health.

What will be the key trends in your industry in the next five years and where do you see it heading?

AI will become an integral part of medical diagnosis and treatment. It will become the infrastructure of modern medicine. Together with sophisticated tools for monitoring health from afar, it will change the face of medical treatment.  

At the same time, privacy is and will be a growing concern and in particular in the digital health and femtech industry. I think we will see both technological and organizational measures taken to minimize the collection and transfer of identifiable medical data.

What is the most important piece of advice you could give to anyone who wants to start a career in this industry?

Get to know your industry and market, talk to different players to get different perspectives. You’ll be surprised how people are happy to talk and share their experience if asked.

In addition, building and maintaining personal and professional networks and establishing co-operations are crucial to your excelling at the job.  

Who are three inspirational women in your respective industry you admire?

I find inspiration in the women of my close surrounding. My grandmothers, my mothers (the one who passed away and the one who raised me), and my mother-in-law – each one in her own way prevailed over difficulties and challenges and aspired for far-reaching goals.

Connect with Tamar on her LinkedIn. Find out more about Yigal Arnon & Co. on their website.

This interview was conducted by Marija Butkovic, Digital Marketing and PR strategist, founder and CEO of Women of Wearables. She regularly writes and speaks on topics of wearable tech, fashion tech, IoT, entrepreneurship and diversity. Follow Marija on Twitter @MarijaButkovic and read her stories for Forbes here.