Avner Halperin

Avner Halperin is an Israeli entrepreneur and executive in the health-technology field. He is a co-founder and former chief executive officer of EarlySense, a company that developed contact-free patient monitoring systems used in hospitals. He is CEO of Sheba Impact, the commercialization and entrepreneurship arm of Sheba Medical Center.

Biography

Early life and education Halperin was born and raised in Jerusalem, Israel. In his youth, he spent six years in the United States and attended high school in Washington, D.C. After high school, he served in the IDF in the Intelligence Corps, where he headed an R&D department and received the Intelligence Innovation Award.

He earned a B.Sc. degree in physics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and an M.Sc. in applied physics from Tel Aviv University. He later completed an MBA at the MIT Sloan School of Management as a Sloan Fellow, where his thesis examined the role of American CEOs in Israeli companies.

Career In the 1990s and early 2000s, Halperin held leadership positions in several Israeli technology companies. He worked in R&D and marketing roles at firms such as Eldat Communications and Radcom, and was vice president at Lenslet. He also co-founded the cybersecurity startup Emmunet with entrepreneur Yossi Vardi, and was CEO.

Business and academic career In 2004, Halperin co-founded EarlySense, a medical technology company developing contactless vital-sign monitoring sensors, alongside Yossi Gross and other partners. He was CEO of EarlySense, overseeing the development and deployment of its continuous monitoring system in hospitals. In February 2021, EarlySense sold the exclusive rights to its technology for hospital use to Hillrom (later part of Baxter International) in a deal worth approximately $30 million. The company faced challenges common to medical device startups, including initial reimbursement complexities and the need to demonstrate clinical value in a competitive market. The sale price of approximately $30 million represented a modest return relative to the total capital raised.

Halperin holds 34 U.S. patents, primarily in the fields of non-contact medical sensing, wireless communications, and cybersecurity. In 2016, he was selected to join a Massachusetts trade delegation to Israel led by Governor Charlie Baker, as part of an initiative to strengthen economic and technological ties.

In 2020, Halperin was appointed Chairman of the Board of EyeControl, an Israeli startup developing eye-tracking communication devices for ventilated patients. That year, EyeControl received funding and recognition for its assistive technology during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since his appointment as CEO of Sheba Impact, Halperin has overseen the commercialization of medical innovations developed at Sheba Medical Center and the establishment of health technology startups.

Halperin is active in academia and public speaking. He is an adjunct lecturer at Tel Aviv University, where he teaches about the economics of big data and artificial intelligence. In 2019, he delivered a TED talk titled "The Missing Link of Medical AI", discussing the integration of artificial intelligence in healthcare.

In 2021, Halperin joined Harvard University's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs as a Senior Fellow. In 2022, he co-authored a Harvard Kennedy School study proposing a blueprint to accelerate the Palestinian high-tech sector’s growth.

In 2024, Halperin was part of a research team at the MIddle East Initiative of Harvard Kennedy School that published a report on the role of health initiatives in building collaborations between Israelis and Palestinians. The New England Journal of Medicine published a perspective article co-authored by Halperin about that research.

Published works Comment on Compact short-wavelength free-electron laser, A. Gover and A. Halperin, Physical Review Letters 67(14): 1934 (1991) - Discussion on free-electron laser physics. Non-classical Effects in Smith-Purcell Radiation, (M.Sc. thesis, 1993).- Graduate thesis on electron-beam radiation phenomena. Electron-beam-induced super-radiant emission from a grating, A. Halperin, A. Gover, and A. Yariv, Physical Review A 50, 3316, October 1994. Globally dispersed startups, A. Halperin, MIT, 2001. - Study on the operations of international startup teams. Time to Reboot: A Blueprint for the Palestinian Tech Sector, A. Halperin, M. Khweis, E. Sandler, Harvard, 2022 A blockchain-based computerized network infrastructure for the transparent, immutable calculation and dissemination of quantitative, measurable parameters of academic and medical research publications, Segal, G., Martsiano, Y., Markinzon, A., Mayer, A., Halperin, A., & Zimlichman, E., Digital Health 9, 2023 - Academic article on using blockchain to track research impact metrics. A Healthcare Bridge over Troubled Conflicts: A New Model for Building Trust through Joint Healthcare Programs.”, Halperin, A., Abu Fraiha, Y., and Alon N., November 2024, Belfer Center, Harvard Kennedy School. - search report on Israeli-Palestinian collaborative health initiatives. Health Care Bridges - Pathways toward Trust in Gaza and Beyond", Abu Fraiha, Y., Ahmed, A., Alon, N. and Halperin, A., May, 2025, New England Journal of Medicine. - Perspective piece on cross-border healthcare as a means to build trust during conflict.