Faculty News

The Azrieli Faculty of Medicine is excited to announce a new Medical Leadership program under the auspices of the Israeli Ministry of Health, called Ilanot. The program launched at an impressive Zoom gathering on January 23, 2022.

In attendance and offering words of greeting were the Minister of Health, Nitzan Horovitz; Minister of Education, Yifat Shasha-Biton; Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development and Minister for the Development of the Periphery, the Negev and the Galilee, Oded Forer; Director of the Ministry of Health, Dr. Nachman Ash; President of Bar-Ilan University, Prof. Arie Zaban; Dean of the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine, Prof. Karl Skorecki; and the Mayor of Safed, Shuki Ohana. 

Participants then broke off into working groups in separate "rooms" to brainstorm and further discuss the program, its goals, challenges, and details.

The conference/meeting introduced the program to the leaders and community and at the same time, was open to hear the opinions and suggestions of the local authorities, health and education officials, community organizations, and most importantly - residents of the North.

The goal of Ilanot is to shape the future medical and health leadership in Israel.

Learn more (in Hebrew) here.

With some 90 students carefully selected from high schools in the North of Israel, the Medical Cadet program launched again this year with an impressive Zoom ceremony held on the evening of January 10, 2022.

Prof. Tzipora C. Falik-Zaccai, Azrieli Faculty of Medicine Vice Dean for Medical Research, and Prof. Anan Abassi, Director General of Ziv Medical Center, opened with greetings. Afterwards, Dr. Chen Shochat described the details of the prestigious 3-year program. Dr. Ron Piran, a researcher at the Azrieli Faculty then gave a brief lecture on diabetes, an important area of study being researched at the Faculty.

We wish the students success and look forward to reading their final papers...and perhaps even meeting them in the Azrieli classroom, as medical students, in the future!

The Azrieli Faculty of Medicine was excited to host MK Idit Silman and MK Iman Khatib-Yasin on January 6, 2022.

MK Silman initiated the visit, in her capacity as Chairperson of the Knesset Health Committee, to discuss governmental funding of the Russell Berrie Galilee Diabetes SPHERE.

The entourage met with Prof. Chaim Putterman, Associate Dean of Research, and Prof. Naim Shehadeh and Dr. Sivan Spitzer who direct the SPHERE.

לעברית, כאן.

Prof. Tzipora Falik-Zaccai of the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine and the Galilee Medical Center has been awarded the Minister of Health distinction for access to medical rights in the field of health.

Falik-Zaccai was granted the award for activities that take place at the genetics institute she heads, making genetic tests accessible to the population of the villages in the north of the country, in order to prevent infant morbidity and mortality from hereditary diseases. 

"For me, this is a life project that has lasted almost 20 years. Our region includes some ​​650,000 people, where very often the populations are small and intermarriage rates are high, resulting in a high rate of hereditary diseases, birth defects and infant mortality. I believe that this is an important goal that can be changed. With the help of our genetics technology and knowledge, our project has changed the reality in the area. From a reality of lack of awareness, fear of genetic testing and fear of various stigmas, we have reached the point where we are welcome in every village, are located within Tipat Halav centers with Ministry of Health nurses and performing genetic testing on the population. I have a wonderful team that came to the plate, with everyone taking a role and doing their best to make the project a success," said Dr. Falik-Zaccai.

The award is given annually in recognition of organizations and individuals involved in promoting rights in the health care system. The ceremony, which took place recently in Cinema City, was attended by Minister of Health Nitzan Horowitz, Director General of his office Prof. Nachman Ash, Chairman of the Medical Association Prof. Zion Hagai, Chairman of the Coalition Committee and Chairman of the Health Committee MK Idit Silman, and senior members of the Patient Rights Association.

Short video (in Hebrew) here.

[Photo credit: Yael Zur]

The Azrieli Faculty of Medicine held a meeting of the Forum of Azrieli-affiliated Medical Centers, at the EMMS (Scottish) Hospital in Nazareth, on December 16, 2021. In attendance were the medical center directors, and Azrieli management. 

We thank EMMS Nazareth, especially Dr. Fahed Hakim, the general director, for hosting the meeting.

The Azrieli Faculty of Medicine was honored to host Mr. Maciej Kaczorovski, a North Macedonian diplomat, on December 8, 2021.

Mr. Kaczorovski, who was accompanied by Dr. Rachel-Shelly Levy-Drummer, Bar-Ilan University Academic Secretary, met with the Azrieli Faculty Dean, Prof. Karl Skorecki; the Administrative Head, Noam David Reshelbach; and BIU International School Representative, Dr. Dorith Raviv-Shay. He also visited Dr. Moshe Dessau's laboratory and learned about the Corona research being done at the Faculty, and Dr. Alon Barash showed him the Faculty's unique Anatomage Table.

We look forward to collaboration in the future.

Picture left to right: Kaczorovski, Levy-Drummer, Dessau, Reshelbach

Excellent news for affiliate hospital Galilee Medical Center in Naharia: The Israeli Ministers of Health and Finance have approved the operating license of the Da Vinci Robot in GMC.

Prof. Johnny Younis, Azrieli Faculty of Medicine Vice Dean for Clinical Education, explains: "The purchase of this device represents a significant step for the field of robotic surgery, and is very noteworthy. This also shows that there are leading physicians at GMC who are proficient in this technology and are interested in promoting its use within the institution. The main departments that will be making use of the device are surgery, gynecology, and possibly even urology. Students who will be exposed to the device will get to know and learn about the technology."

Link to Israel Hayom Hebrew article here.

The Azrieli Faculty of Medicine was honored to host Rabbanit Devorah Evron, Bar-Ilan University Campus Spiritual Advisor, on December 1, 2021.

Rabbanit Evron, pictured here with Dr. Yair Blumberg in front of the Anatomage (Virtual Anatomy Teaching), also met with
Dr. Yaakov (Kobi) Maman, Dr. Miri Bentwich, and of course the Dean, Prof. Karl Skorecki, and Associate Dean for Research, Prof. Chaim Putterman.

The Rabbanit was then invited to share a dvar Torah (short speech on relevant Jewish topic) at the communal candle lighting ceremony that took place at the Faculty, led by the Dean.

Pictures from the festive gathering are below:

Timed to coincide with National Diabetes Month and the launch of The Russell Berrie Galilee Diabetes SPHERE, on November 25, 2021, Prof. Karl Skorecki and Prof. Naim Shehadeh addressed an audience of over 150 Bar-Ilan U. graduates and interested participants on the topic of diabetes, via Zoom.

Naama Gat, BIU Chief Marketing and Business Development Officer, introduced the panelists and explained to the audience that this lecture is the tenth in a series of academic lectures offered to graduates of BIU - and timed perfectly with the launch of SPHERE.

Prof. Skorecki, Dean of the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine, opened with mentioning that insulin was discovered in Toronto 100 years ago by Banting and Best, and that he himself commenced his academic and medical studies exactly 50 years ago, in Toronto, also studying under Best. He posed the question, that if insulin was discovered 100 years ago, why is it now considered an epidemic.

With this background in mind, Skorecki then proceeded to present Prof. Shehadeh, President of the Israeli Diabetes Association who currently serves as Director of Diabetes Endocrinology and Metabolism at Rambam Medical Center and will be heading SPHERE, with questions regarding diabetes.

The two discussed physiology, prevention, treatments, education, and the promise that The SPHERE is offering, with its $75 million budget over the next ten years.

The evening culminated with an open Q&A session and as "desert" - a video clip from the November 16, 2021 launch.

If you missed it, the lecture can be viewed on the Bar-Ilan U. Facebook page, here.

On November 21, 2021, the Galilee Medical Center (an affiliate hospital of the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine at Bar Ilan University) hosted more than 100 surgeons from all over the world as they gathered online to discuss hot topics in the performance of inguinal hernia surgery. The event was organized by Dr. Eli Kakiashvili (Chief of Surgery at Galilee Medical Center and clinical lecturer at the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine) and Dr. Elliot Goodman (Vice-Chair of Surgical Quality at Mount Sinai Downtown in New York City, USA).

Galilee Medical Center surgeons (including Dr. Eli Kakiashvili and Dr. Assi Drobot) masterly performed two live operations, while answering questions from colleagues viewing from all over the world. The seminar also featured lectures from a panel of internationally renowned hernia experts from the USA, the UK, Belgium and India. The conversations among the panelists on chronic pain after inguinal hernia surgery and the role of robotic technology in the performance of these operations were particularly lively.

Approximately 35% of the attendees hailed from Israel and 24% from India. Other countries represented in the audience included the USA, the UK, Malaysia, South Africa, Turkey, Ireland, Egypt, Cambodia, Libya, Canada, Bangladesh, Oman and Lithuania.

The Russell Berrie Galilee Diabetes SPHERE gala launch took place on November 16, 2021 at the Yigal Alon Cultural Center just a few blocks away from the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine campus in Safed.

The launch received much press coverage before the event, and after, some of which can be seen here and here.

The event, which was attended by hundreds of participants from nearby as well as those who travelled from afar to attend and thereby express their support, opened with a festive reception. The ceremony then moved to the auditorium, and was emceed by Dr. Sivan Spitzer, Deputy Director of SPHERE. In addition to speeches by Minister of Health Nitzan Horowitz; MK Idit Silman; Angelica Berrie, President of The Russell Berrie Foundation; Bar-Ilan University President Prof. Arie Zaban; Prof. Naim Shehadeh who will be heading SPHERE; and of course, Azrieli Faculty of Medicine Dean Prof. Karl Skorecki - the audience enjoyed an artistic performance by Elmughrabia, The Andalusian Orchestra, Maalot Tarshiha (conducted by Orian Shukrun with lead soloist Tamar Shawki). The logistics of the event were organized by Roni Katz Frydman.

In addition to the press coverage mentioned above, to learn more about The Russell Berrie Galilee Diabetes SPHERE, see here.

The Azrieli Faculty of Medicine was honored to host Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish, on November 17, 2021. Dr. Abuelaish grew up and raised a family in Gaza and was the first doctor from Gaza to work in an Israeli hospital. He is currently Associate Professor of Global Health at the University of Toronto. An author, he also published a memoir in 2011 entitled I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor's Journey on the Road to Peace and Human Dignity.

Dr. Abulelaish visited the Azrieli Faculty to explore research collaboration possibilities with returning scholars who will be joining the Faculty in the near future. He met with the Dean Prof. Karl Skorecki and Bar-Ilan University supporters Karen and Marc Rivo, and lunched with Azrieli researchers.

We look forward to future cooperation.

[Pictured: Dr. Abuelaish with Karen and Marc Rivo]

Prof. Omry Koren of the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine, for the fourth year in a row, has been selected among an elite group recognized for his exceptional research influence, demonstrated by the production of multiple highly-cited papers that rank in the top 1% by citations for field and year in the Web of Science™.

Each year, Clarivate™ identifies the world’s most influential researchers ─ the select few who have been most frequently cited by their peers over the last decade. In 2021, fewer than 6,700, or about 0.1%, of the world's researchers, in 21 research fields and across multiple fields, have earned this exclusive distinction.

Congratulations!

Prof. Bornstein's appointment is the first such appointment from outside of the USA.

Prof. Chaim Putterman, Azrieli Associate Dean for Research, congratulated Prof. Bornstein, saying, "As a physician-scientist with a significant and steady contribution over the years to the study of genital diseases in women, being appointed as the Editor-in-Chief of the journal of an American scientific society, and especially for a non-American, is a significant achievement that reflects your international standing in this important field. I'm sure your contribution will be significant."

The Journal of Lower Genital Tract Disease is the official journal of the ASCCP.

Read more on the BIU website, here.

The Batsheva de Rothschild Symposium “Mathematics of the Skeleton: Post-Genome analysis for bone biology” took place on Oct.12-13, 2021 at the Faculty.

Given the success of the previous (virtual) meeting held in December  2020, this hybrid symposium included live as well as online presentations, discussions and innovative approaches, opportunities, and challenges from experts in the field of musculoskeletal (MSK) disease, to be addressed by Big Data, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and deep/machine learning.  

This workshop was held to provide a blueprint for the MSK research with an aim of translating discoveries from human studies into new diagnostic tools and therapies for patients with MSK diseases. Mathematicians, statisticians, and Big Data experts were brought together with clinically oriented researchers and skeletal biologists to discuss foundations and applications of experimental models in the MSK health and disease.  

Distinguished guest speakers included Dr. Solomon Owumi, Ibadan, Nigeria; Prof. David Rowe (Connecticut, USA); Prof. Kent Søe (Odense, Denmark), Kathleen Curran (Dublin, Ireland), and Dr. HW Deng’s associates from the Tulane University, USA.

Israeli speakers included Prof. Yankel Gabet and Prof. Tamir Tuller, from Tel Aviv University; Gil Goobes and Prof. Aharon Gedanken of Bar-Ilan University; Prof. Avi Schroeder, Technion; Ari Elson, Weizmann Institute of Science, and Prof. Noam Levaot (Ben Gurion U.).

The audience was truly international, with a preponderance of the European, Israeli, UK, Turkey and Azerbaijan, equally represented by the trainees, advanced scientists, and students, overwhelmingly from the academia.  

This symposium ran in parallel with the European COST Action workshop “ Histomorphometry and MicroCT standard analyses in fish and rodents,” thus cross-fertilizing among the AI and bone communities.

It was organized by Dr. Milana Frenkel-Morgenstern and Prof. David Karasik and funded by the Batsheva de Rothschild Foundation and the Dangoor Institute for Personalized Medicine. Special thanks to Dr. Gideon Baum and Violetta Belotzerkovsky (from the Frenkel-Morgenstern lab) and Mr. Dan Hinenzon (Azrieli IT manager) for their assistance in organizing and smoothly running the workshop virtually online.