Faculty of Medicine Newsletter 67 (October 2022)

PDF for easier reading here.

New Academic Year Opens at the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine

Following summer break then the High Holiday season, the academic year finally opened at both Bar-Ilan University campuses on October 23, 2022.

We wish all students – MD, MSc, and PhD - teachers, and staff success and satisfaction this year!

Read more here.

A few pictures of the first day at the Faculty can be seen here.

Ilanot Kick-Off Seminar at Kibbutz Kfar Giladi

Twenty-nine first year MD students from the four-year MD track were chosen to participate in the Ministry of Health’s Ilanot Medical Leadership program. The cohort met for the first time for two full days of lectures, meetings, and workshops, on October 2-3, 2022 at Kfar Giladi. Read more here about the seminar and the program.

Dr. Irene Bettinger Visits Faculty and Students

The Azrieli Faculty of Medicine was honored to welcome Dr. Irene Bettinger, a very dedicated and personally involved friend of the Faculty.

Dr. Bettinger and her entourage spent October 24, 2022 with researchers and students and even made an appearance at the weekly Faculty academic leadership meeting, listening intently to the opening dvar torah presented by Prof. Chaim Putterman, Associate Dean Research.

Later in the day, Dr. Bettinger dined with students, hosted by Prof. Eric Shinwell, Associate Dean Medical Education, at his home.

Thanks to a fund in the name of her parents, the Paul and Edwina Heller Memorial Scholarship Fund, Dr. Bettinger has made it possible for the Faculty to offer needs based as well as excellence based scholarships. She also quickly came to the plate, enabling the establishment of the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine Physician Assistant program that was initiated during the initial Corona crisis.

Medical Education TBL at the Faculty

On September 14, 2022 a Team Based Learning (TBL)On September 14, 2022 a Team Based Learning (TBL) workshop was held for Family Medicine specialist instructors. TBL has been promoted for the past eight year by Family Medicine Division head Prof. Sophia Eilat-Tsanani, and Head of Unit, Evaluation and Advancement of Education, Dr. Nomy Dickman. This seminar was led also by Dr. Ayelet Bar. The Family Medicine specialists in the North study weekly for 3 years, covering topics from the clinical field, research, community, doctor-patient relations and more. The Flipped Classroom method is employed. The workshop provided an experience of learning using the TBL method and was also a platform for the preparation of a study unit using the active learning method. The participants gained experience as both learners and teachers. Feedback was very positive.

 

Physician Health a Priority

Lilach Malatskey, Vice Dean Community Medical Education, writes:

“As part of my activities as the head of the forum for the health and resilience of doctors in the Israeli Medical Association, I am happy to share the new website that we worked hard to put online.”

Take a look - this new, helpful, and very important site can be found here.

Congratulations

A paper recently published by Dr. Liron Rozenkrantz was selected to be highlighted by APA in their Science Showcase (Health Psychology and COVID-19) of September 28, 2022.

 

Appointments and Promotions

• Congratulations to Dr. Amiel Dror, upon his appointment to Senior Lecturer
• Congratulations to Dr. Amir Mari, upon his appointment to Clinical Senior Lecturer
• Congratulations to Dr. Wisam Sbeit, upon his appointment to Clinical Senior Lecturer

 

Seminars

Please note: All upcoming Faculty Seminars for the 2022-23 academic year can be seen here.

• PhD Seminar: Studying the effect of genomic alterations on cellular mechanisms involved in cancer processes (Mahua Bhattacharia, supervised by Dr. Milana Frenkel-Morgenstern)
• Faculty Seminar: Virulent and Antimicrobial Amyloids in Infections and Neurodegeneration (Prof. Meytal Landau, Technion) - pictured to right
• Upcoming Faculty Seminar: The multi-scale structure of chromatin in the nucleus (Prof. Yuval Garini, Technion)
• Upcoming Faculty Seminar: Regulation of mitophagic selectivity by a novel intramitochondrial signaling cascade (Prof. Hagai Abeliovich, Hebrew University)

And more…

Conferences

Annual Research Day at Baruch Padeh Medical Center, Poriya on October 26, 2022. Stay tuned for more details.

Condolences

• Condolences to Dr. Nimrod Rahamimov (Galilee Medical Center) on the passing of his mother.
• Condolences to Tal Sneh on the passing of her father.

Russell Berrie Galilee Diabetes SPHERE

For latest SPHERE activity, see their Facebook page here.

Meet Our New Researchers

Two new researchers just joined the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine: Dr. Moran Yadid and Dr. Rotem Kahalon. This month we would like to introduce you to Dr. Kahalon:

Dr. Kahalon, what is your area of research?
I study how subtle, often unnoticeable, social psychological mechanisms help maintain intergroup inequality, and how they contribute to disparities in health, mental health, and well-being.
More specifically, I focus on how different social factors, such as social norms and group stereotypes, affect peoples’ explicit and implicit perceptions, goals, and motivations, and how these, in turn, affect their behaviors. This includes, for example, how societal beauty norms affect women’s and men’s health and mental health, how stereotypes about specific social groups (gender, racial, or ethnic stereotypes) affect medical decision making and behaviors towards patients who belong to these groups, and how gender stereotypes affect doctors’ career choices.
In my opinion, unraveling the social forces that shape our attitudes and behaviors is the most fascinating thing you can study, and I’m excited to join the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine and apply this knowledge to study healthcare environments and health and mental health outcomes. 

Can you share a bit about your background?
My academic career focused on identifying mechanisms that maintain inequality and finding ways to overcome them. I use different methodologies, mostly experimental work and survey designs, including longitudinal studies. I obtained a BA in Psychology from the University of Haifa, then an MA in Social Psychology from Tel-Aviv University. I’ve also completed the Clinical Psychology Program for Psychologists at Tel-Aviv University, but I was drawn back to Social Psychology and completed a PhD in Social Psychology (all at Tel-Aviv University). I then worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Zurich University in Switzerland and at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada. 
As a social psychologist, I found working in other countries to have an added value, as it allowed me to create cross cultural corporations and examine how the social phenomenon change as a factor of the social environment. I was also fortunate enough to work and learn from great people, something I appreciate both on the academic and personal levels, such as with Prof. Nurit Shnabel, Prof Yael Benyamini, Prof. Johannese Ullric and Prof. Steve Wright. 

Anything else you'd like to share?
I love hiking. When not working you can probably find me trying to summit a mountain somewhere. Any recommendations would we welcomed!
For students:
If you are interested in the topics below, feel free to reach out! Students from different academic backgrounds are welcomed. 
•    The psychological processes involved in creating and maintaining health inequalities and healthcare disparities
•    The role of gender and sexual orientation in health and medicine
•    The effects of dehumanization and objectification of the self and others on people’s mental, physical and sexual health.

 

Azrieli Alumni Please Note

Please help us spread the word to Azrieli alumni that we want to keep in touch. We want to hear from them, from you.

Go to our “Request for Information” page, here.

Note that currently we are expending special efforts to build the MD graduate alumni organization. 

All graduates are encouraged to take advantage of the Bar-Ilan University Alumni Association, here. 

 

 

Website: What’s New? 

Publications 

Reminder that publications by Azrieli faculty are generally posted in chronological order based on publication date, per PubMed listings. If you have published an article recently that appears on PubMed but that was not listed in a Newsletter, I apologize, and please do let me know.

PLEASE NOTE: ALL PUBLICATIONS BY RESEARCHERS AT AZRIELI OR ITS AFFILIATE RESEARCH CENTERS MUST PROPERLY CITE THIS AFFILIATION: Azrieli Faculty of Medicine, Bar-Ilan University, Safed, Israel. IF YOU ARE UNSURE OR NEED GUIDANCE, PLEASE CONTACT US.

• Liora Livshitz, Tsafrir Or: The effects of a multi-day cross-country mountain bike race on myocardial function, stress, inflammation and cardiac biomarkers in amateur master athletes (Res Sports Med . )
• Naaem Simaan, Fadi Shbat: Characteristics of patients with cerebral sinus venous thrombosis and JAK2 V617F mutation (Acta Neurol Belg . )
• Shaul Atar: Peripheral artery disease, abnormal ankle-brachial index, and prognosis in patients with acute coronary syndrome (Front Cardiovasc Med .)
• Rola Khamisy-Farah: Ensuring equitable, inclusive and meaningful gender identity- and sexual orientation-related data collection in the healthcare sector: insights from a critical, pragmatic systematic review of the literature (Int Rev Psychiatry .)
• Ilan Shamir: Atenolol treatment does not affect behavioral outcomes in pediatric patients with infantile hemangiomas: a case-control cohort study (J Am Acad Dermatol . )
• Ronny Ben-Avi, Jacob Chen, Avi Benov: Emergent exploratory thoracotomy with military casualties: contemporary prehospital management and outcome (see editorial page 619) (Isr Med Assoc J .)
• Avi Benov, Elon Glassberg: Military medical research in the IDF: an array of fields and interests (Isr Med Assoc J .)
• Avi Benov: Lessons from outbreaks of COVID-19 at Israeli military bases (Isr Med Assoc J .)
• Avi Benov: Where Did the Patients Go? The IDF Medical Corps Medical Services Experience during the COVID-19 Outbreak: Lessons Learned (Isr Med Assoc J .)
• Avi Benov: Isolated Versus Non-isolated Traumatic Brain Injuries Identification and Decision Making: A Comparative Study (Isr Med Assoc J . )
• Jacob Chen, Avi Benov: Patterns in vehicle-ramming attacks (Isr Med Assoc J .)
• Elon Glassberg, Avi Benov: Trends in prehospital pain management: two decades of point-of-injury care (Isr Med Assoc J . )
• Avi Benov: Intraosseous administration of freeze-dried plasma in the prehospital setting (Isr Med Assoc J . )
•  
• Elon Glassberg: A randomized, controlled, blinded evaluation of augmenting point-of-care ultrasound and remote telementored ultrasound in inexperienced operators (Isr Med Assoc J .)
• Avi Benov: BladeShield 101: A Novel Prehospital Digital Wearable Combat Casualty Card (Isr Med Assoc J .)
• Avi Benov: Rates of Missed Injuries in the Prehospital Setting Are Unrelated to the Gender of the Medical Provider: A Retrospective Study
• Avi Benov: Is Gender a Risk Factor for Oligoanalgesia in the Military Prehospital Trauma Setting? (Isr Med Assoc J . )
• Ibrahim Marai: Left atrial appendage exclusion in atrial fibrillation (Front Cardiovasc Med . )
• Noa Martonovich, Maher Khatib, Michael Assaf: Hair tourniquet syndrome: A retrospective study (Pediatr Dermatol .)
• Doron Sagi, Mary Catharine Joy Rudolf, Sivan Spitzer: A social ecological approach to promote learning health disparities in the clinical years: impact of a home-visiting educational program for medical students (BMC Med Educ . )
• Khalaf Kridin: Atypical clinical manifestation and protracted latency are observed in the emerging variant of checkpoint inhibitor-associated bullous pemphigoid (Br J Dermatol . )
• Ran Handel: What we know about the role of corticosteroids in psychiatric disorders; evidence from animal and clinical studies (J Psychiatr Res .)
• David Karasik: Both indirect maternal and direct fetal genetic effects reflect the observational relationship between higher birth weight and lower adult bone mass (BMC Med .)
• Chovav Handler: High rates of recurrence of gallstone associated episodes following acute cholecystitis during long term follow-up: a retrospective comparative study of patients who did not receive surgery (Eur J Trauma Emerg Surg . )
• Limor Meoded Danon: Opportunities and challenges with the German act for the protection of children with variations of sex development (Int J Impot Res . )
• Ohad Ronen: Effectiveness of core needle biopsy in the diagnosis of thyroid lymphoma and anaplastic thyroid carcinoma: A systematic review and meta-analysis (Front Endocrinol (Lausanne) .)
• Hanna Mandel, Nadra Nasser Samra: Vici syndrome in Israel: Clinical and molecular insights (Front Genet .)
• Avi Benov: Blast Injury Patterns Among Israel Defense Forces Fatalities (Mil Med . )
• Inass Kayyal-Tarabeia, Michael Blank, Keren Agay-Shay: Residence near industrial complex and cancer incidence: A registry-based cohort of 1,022,637 participants with a follow-up of 21 years, Israel (Environ Res .)
• Johnny S Younis: Is ovarian reserve reduction following endometriotic cystectomy predicted? The implication for fertility preservation counseling (Front Endocrinol (Lausanne) . )
• Khalaf Kridin, Daniel Goral, Erez Onn: Vitiligo and Crohn's disease form an autoimmune cluster: insights from a population-based study (Scand J Gastroenterol . )
• Yasmin Ghantous, Aysar Nashef, Murad Abdelraziq, Kutaiba Alkeesh, Shareef Araidy, Imad Abu El-Naaj: Clinical and Prognostic Significance of the Eighth Edition Oral Cancer Staging System (Cancers (Basel) . )
• Shemy Carasso: Urgent Transcatheter Edge-to-Edge Repair for Severe Mitral Regurgitation in Patients with Refractory Cardiogenic Shock (J Clin Med . )
• Amir Mari, Wisam Sbeit, Tawfik Khoury: Bloating, Diarrhoea and Maldigestion in Patients with Metabolic Syndrome: Are Fatty Pancreas and Pancreatic Exocrine Insufficiency the Missing Pieces of the Puzzle? (J Clin Med .)
• Yosefa Birati, Enav Yefet, Yuri Perlitz, Naim Shehadeh, Sivan Spitzer: Cultural and Digital Health Literacy Appropriateness of App- and Web-Based Systems Designed for Pregnant Women With Gestational Diabetes Mellitus: Scoping Review (J Med Internet Res .)
• Danny Levy, Ohad Ronen: Assessment of a limited-access parotidectomy technique's complications and scar characteristics - A cohort study (J Plast Reconstr Aesthet Surg . )
• Katreena Yamin, Bijoy Mukut Buragohain, Michal Werbner, Meital Gal-Tanamy, Avi Matityahu, Itay Onn: Fold-change of chromatin condensation in yeast is a conserved property (Sci Rep .)
• Nasser Sakran: Surgical Management of Gastro-oesophageal Reflux Disease After One Anastomosis Gastric Bypass - a Systematic Review (Obes Surg . )
• Shams Twafra, Tal Sneh, Kolluru D Srikanth, Tomer Meirson, Alessandro Genna, Hava Gil-Henn: A novel Pyk2-derived peptide inhibits invadopodia-mediated breast cancer metastasis (Oncogene .)
• Ala Aiob, Lior Lowenstein, Inna Borik, Karina Naskovica, Susana Mustafa Mikhail, Marwan Odeh: The value of clinical symptoms, the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, and ultrasonographic features in predicting adnexal torsion: A case-control study (J Obstet Gynaecol Res . )
• Gassan Moady, Dabbah Saleem: Outcomes among patients admitted for non-ST segment myocardial infarction in the pre pandemic and pandemic COVID-19 era - Israel Nationwide study (Int J Qual Health Care .)
• Khalaf Kridin: Isotretinoin and the risk of psychiatric disturbances - A global study shedding new light on a debatable story (J Am Acad Dermatol .)
• Limor Kalfon, Hadas Raveh-Barak, Nadra Samra, Natalia Chasnyk, Nehama Cohen Kfir, Nissreen Kinaani Mousa, Efrat Shuster Biton, Mary Tanus, Tzipora C Falik Zaccai: Familial Early-Onset Alzheimer's Caused by Novel Genetic Variant and APP Duplication: A Cross-Sectional Study (Curr Alzheimer Res .)
• Maya Azrad, Lital Ashtamkar Matok, Tamar Leshem, Avi Peretz: Comparison of FT-IR with whole-genome sequencing for identification of maternal-to‑neonate transmission of antibiotic-resistant bacteria (J Microbiol Methods . )

 

Faculty News

• Academic Year 2022-23 Opens at the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine
• New Book Edited by Dr. Nir Qvit: Peptide and Peptidomimetic Therapeutics From Bench to Bedside

 

Faculty Press Exposure 

• osmosis.org (Elsevier): A Look Inside Medical Education in Israel - Dr. Peter Gilbey and Dr. Yair Blumberg of Bar-Ilan University, Azrieli Faculty of Medicine

“Although many countries are facing a shortage of physicians, Israel is being hit particularly hard by this problem, especially in rural areas. But as we’ll learn in this episode of Raise the Line, Dr. Peter Gilbey and Dr. Yair Blumberg of The Azrieli Faculty of Medicine at Bar-Ilan University are doing their part to reverse that trend by developing new approaches to medical education…”

Image Gallery 

A few candid shots from the first day of school can be seen here.