Prof. Emeritus Mary Rudolf
Child health, Medical education
CV
Mary Rudolf is Professor Emerita at Bar Ilan University Faculty of Medicine in Israel and Former Professor of Child Health at the University of Leeds, UK.
She trained as a doctor at the University of London (UCL) followed by residency training at the Universities of Cambridge (UK) and Connecticut (USA). Her research training was gained through Postdoctoral Fellowships in Pediatric Endocrinology at Yale University and Ambulatory Pediatrics at Brown University. Later in her career she spent sabbaticals as a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Oxford and at the Centres for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia.
In 2012 she moved to Israel to help establish Israel's new medical school in Safed and set up its Department of Population Health. Over the last five years she has taken on the role of research advisor and chair of the Research Advisory Committee of the Goshen Centre for Child Health and Wellbeing.
Notable academic achievements include her research into child growth and nutrition. She has gained international recognition for her work into the epidemiology, prevention and treatment of child obesity. She has published widely in the area of medical education with a focus on social accountability, health disparities and lifestyle medicine. Her three medical textbooks have been translated into ten languages and are now into their 4th editions.
Her efforts now lie on the importance of early childhood in determining an individual's lifecourse and using her varied experience to support early-career researchers.
Research
Over her career Professor Rudolf's academic activity has focused on pediatric endocrinology, child nutrition, medical education, health disparities and health services research. At this time her interests principally lie in the following areas:
- The relevance of the Early Years to subsequent health
- Parenting and its impact on child mental health and nutrition
- Child obesity
- Medical education and training
- Supporting students and colleagues early in their academic careers
Professor Rudolf has more than 120 publications in peer-reviewed journals with an H factor of 45 (Google scholar). She has been primary supervisor for 38 MSc/MPH students and eight PhD students. She has co-supervised a further 144 MSc students in the UK.
Courses
Since becoming Emeritus Professor Rudolf continues to
- supervise PhD students
- provide mentorship for Psychiatry Residents conducting research projects
- teach on the Population Health and 'GARGA' courses for preclinical medical students, and the Lakum mihafsal course for clinical students
- Lecture on the Diabetes Sphere course for health professionals
Publications
Medical education and Health Services Research
Schwartz-Shpiro M, Gorbatt A, Gutentag T, Shalev A, Rudolf M, Grossman Z, Gadassi H, Berger-Raanan R, Pinchover S. The impact of trauma-informed training on pediatricians' perceived-competence in treating war-affected children: a pilot study. BMC Med Educ. 2025 Feb 10;25(1):213. doi: 10.1186/s12909-024-06605-6.
Pinchover S, Berger Raanan R, Gadassi H, Shalev A, Dahari D, Gutentag T, Rudolf MCJ. Pediatricians at the Forefront of Child Mental Health? A Delphi Method Exploration. Israel Journal of Health Policy Research. 2024;13:73. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13584-024-00661-5
Pinchover S, Berger-Raanan R, Yaari M, Rudolf M, Rubin L, Idan Prusak D, Skvirsky V, Margolin T, Gadassi H. “I’m 'just' a community pediatrician” Views and Challenges of Pediatricians Working in the Community in Israel. Israel Journal of Health Policy Research. 2023;12:12. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13584-023-00563-y
Essa Hadad J, Rudolf MCJ, Mani N, Maletskey L. Mapping lifestyle medicine in undergraduate medical education: a lever for enhancing the curriculum. BMC Medical Education. 2022;22, 886. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-022-03929-z
Sagi D, Rudolf MCJ, Spitzer S. A Social Ecological Approach to Promote Learning Health Disparities in the Clinical Years: impact of a home-visiting educational program for medical students. BMC Medical Education. 2022;22(1):698. doi: 10.1186/s12909-022-03755-3.
Malatskey L, Essa-Hadad J, Eldar R, Filipov I, Eilat-Tsanani S, Rudolf MCJ. Medical student lifestyle counselling for non-communicable disease: impact on students’ competence and patients’ health behaviors. IJHPR. 2022 May 24;11(1):23. doi: 10.1186/s13584-022-00532-x.
Peer M, Rudolf MCJ, Essah-Hadad J, Maletsky L. The Effects of the Covid-19 Pandemic on the Mental Health and Learning Abilities of Medical Students: A Cross-Sectional Study. JIMS. 2021;01:8-15
Sagie D, Spitzer-Shohat S, Schuster M, Daudi L, Rudolf MCJ. Teaching Plain Language to Medical Students: Improving communication with disadvantaged patients. BMC Medical Education. 2021;21:407. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-021-02842-1
Sagie D, Spitzer-Shohat S, Schuster M, Rier D, Rudolf MCJ. Learning Social Determinants Of Health Through A Home Visiting Course In The Clinical Years. Patient Education and Counselling. 2020 Nov;103(11):2335-2341.
Spitzer-Shohat S, Sagi D, Schuster M, Ben-Ami M, Rivo M, Tur-Kaspa R, Rudolf MCJ. Teaching the interplay between Social Determinants of Health (SDH) and Health Outcomes: The ETGAR student-delivered service. J Gen Intern Med. 2019 Mar 11. doi: 10.1007/s11606-019-04904-z
Ratcliffe G, Spitzer-Shohat S, Stroud L, Essa-Hadad J, Rudolf MCJ. Are non-clinical community placements an effective way to generate medical student understanding of the social determinants of ill health? Public Health. 2018 Jun;159:144–147
Child nutrition
Chagit P, Shloim N, Rudolf MCJ. Nutritional Nesting (Nestrition): Shaping the Home Food Environment in the First Pregnancy. Nutrients. 2024;16, 3335. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu16193335
Darling J, Rudolf MCJ, Rubino F, Greenough A. Tackling Obesity While Preventing Obesity Stigma. Archives of Disease in Childhood. 2024;0:1–4. doi:10.1136/archdischild-2023-325894
Peles C, Shloim N, Rudolf MCJ. ‘Over-preoccupation with healthy food is perceived as worship of the body’: Food, culture and beliefs in Ultra-Orthodox Jewish families. Appetite. 2021 Dec 1;167:105621. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2021.105621
Rudolf MCJ, Bord S, Hasson R, Sahar Y, Rubin L, Manor N, Paldi Y, Baron-Epel O. Between-country analysis of implementing an obesity prevention intervention using RE-AIM: HENRY in Israel and UK. Health Promotion International. 2021. doi: 10.1093/heapro/daab119
Soskolne V, Cohen-Dar M, Obeid S, Cohen N, Rudolf M. Socio-Economic, Psychosocial, Lifestyle and Community Factors Do Not Explain Ethnic Inequalities in Obesity in Disadvantaged Israeli Mothers. British Journal of Social Work. 2019 (in press)
Bridge GL, Willis TA, Evans CEL, Roberts K, Rudolf M. The impact of HENRY on parenting and family lifestyle: exploratory analysis of the mechanisms for change. Child: Care, Health & Development. 2019;45(6):850–860.
Soskolne V, Cohen-Dar M, Obeid S, Cohen N, Rudolf M. Risk and Protective Factors for Child Overweight/Obesity among Low Socio-Economic Populations in Israel: A Cross Sectional Study. Front Endocrinol (Lausanne). 2018 Aug 21;9:456. doi: 10.3389/fendo.2018.00456
Peles C, Rudolf MCJ, Weingarten M, Bentwich M. What can be learned from health-related tensions and disparities in ultra-orthodox Jewish families? J Relig Health. 2018 Jun;57(3):1133–1145. doi: 10.1007/s10943-018-0590-6
Rudolf M, Perera R, Swanston D, Burberry J, Roberts K, Jebb S. Disparities in obesity in children in the UK: Has Leeds bucked the trend? Pediatric Obesity. 2019; e12529
Shloim N, Rudolf M, Feltbower R, Blundell-Birtill P, Hetherington M. Israeli and British women’s well-being and eating behaviours in pregnancy and postpartum. J Reprod Infant Psychol. 2019 Apr;37(2):123–138
Child health
Shalev L, Rudolf MCJ, Sivan Spitzer. Better safe than sorry: Evaluating the implementation process of a home-visitation intervention aimed at preventing unintentional childhood injuries in the hospital setting. Frontiers in Health Services. 2022. DOI: 10.3389/frhs.2022.944367
Shalev S, Luder A, Spitzer S, Krupik D, Essa-Hadad J, Rudolf MCJ. Keeping Our Children Safe: Piloting A Hospital-based Home-Visitation Program in Israel. IJHPR. 2022;11:21 https://doi.org/10.1186/s13584-022-00525-w
Daudi L, Luder AS, Spitzer-Shohat S, Rudolf MCJ. Increasing healthcare students' cultural competence through experience-based learning: a child injury prevention program in Israeli northern periphery. European Journal of Public Health. 2022;31:iii526
Cohen Kfir N, Rudolf MCJ, Bentwich M, Dickman N, Falik T. “LEADERS": A culturally tailored approach to genetic counseling for minority populations. Journal of Genetic Counselling. 2021 Feb;30(1):70-74. doi: 10.1002/jgc4.1369.
Cohen Kfir N, Bentwich ME, Kent A, Dickman N, Tanus M, Higazi B, Kalfon L, Rudolf M, Falik-Zaccai TC. Challenges to effective and autonomous genetic testing and counseling for ethno-cultural minorities: A qualitative study. BMC Medical Ethics. 2020
Spitzer-Shohat S, Essa-Hadad J, Rudolf M. Development of a Novel Social Incubator for Health Promoting Initiatives in a Disadvantaged Region. BMC Public Health. 2020;20:898
Bord S, Berkowitz E, Rudolf M, Pladi Y, Hasson R, Shar Y, Rubin L, Baron Epel. Kiddum briut in Israel. April 2020 (Hebrew)
Darling JC, Bamidis PD, Burberry J, Rudolf MCJ. The First Thousand Days: early, integrated and evidence-based approaches to improving child health: coming to a population near you? Arch Dis Child. 2020;105(9):837–841.
Sever A, Essa-Hadad J, Luder A, Weiss O, Agay-Shay K, Rudolf M. Keeping children safe: A model for predicting families at risk for recurrent childhood injuries. Public Health. 2019 May;170:10–16
Last Updated Date : 22/07/2025
