February 12, 2008
Israeli medicine stronger than ever
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This month's announcement of a new initiative to distribute $60,000 grants to doctors from English-speaking countries who make aliyah
raises an obvious question: If such incentives are required to bring
top medical caregivers to the Jewish state, just how bad is Israel's
health-care industry?
In fact, this program for doctors from the
United States and Britain — sponsored by Nefesh B'Nefesh and the Legacy
Heritage Fund in collaboration with the Israeli health and absorption
ministries — highlights the state of medicine in Israel, which is at
its strongest point ever and has earned the well-deserved prestige of
being a global leader.
This is not an accomplishment that has come quickly or easily.
When
I began in my post at the Shaare Zedek Medical Center nearly two
decades ago, the norm for seriously ill Israeli patients with means was
to ask where outside Israel they should go for the best care. Lacking
confidence in the Israeli health-care system, patients routinely sought
out doctors in
Today
the opposite is true. Now in Israel, we regularly get cases of supreme
complexity in our operating rooms and medical departments, even from
patients living outside of Israel.
What has so dramatically and positively transformed Israel's reputation as a medical provider?
The
answer lies within the same commitment to excellence that has inspired
Israeli successes and global leadership in many fields. Slowly but
surely we have improved the infrastructure of our hospitals and the
standards of quality that are key for providing cutting-edge medicine
in the 21st century.
Much of the credit goes to massive
injections of support — moral and financial — from friends of Israel
overseas who appreciate that a Jewish state is a most appropriate place
to act as a beacon for medical excellence.
Most important, we
have relied on that same Zionist ethos of dedicated labor and belief in
a dream that has enabled us to add top-level medicine to the feats of
this remarkable little nation of ours.
This transformation can
be seen both in the physical infrastructure of Israeli hospitals and
the rising quality of our primary resource: our doctors and nurses.
Our
major medical centers have acquired the type of equipment found in
leading Western hospitals. All the diagnostic machinery and therapeutic
modalities that characterize major clinical and research institutions
in advanced nations now have become the standard in Israeli medicine.
Thus
in almost every area, Israel's leading hospitals offer the types of
advanced technology that in previous decades might have been available
only abroad.
Institutionally, within our hospitals and health
systems, and from directives issued by our Ministry of Health, we have
strengthened our commitment to quality control and performance.
On
the human resource level, Israel has cultivated home-grown talent with
medical schools that rival the best in the West. In addition, most
Israeli doctors participate in fellowships and post-doctoral studies
beyond our borders, typically at leading universities in the United
States.
Responding to an expected shortage of medical personnel worldwide, Israel is taking steps to limit its impact at home.
Of
course we also have been aided by an influx of talent from the
Diaspora. Despite popular perception, within the masses of immigrants
from the former Soviet Union have come many skilled clinicians, medical
researchers and accomplished biotechnologists who have contributed
enormously toward raising the bar throughout the Israeli health-care
and bioresearch communities.
Immigrants of many other countries
have joined our work force, and the international flavor of our
hospitals and doctors' offices has been a positive development.
As
a result of these and many other advances, Jerusalem and other Israeli
cities now draw the most highly esteemed figures in health care
worldwide to medical conferences in Israel. Procedures and strategies
researched and designed within our hospitals' halls are taught at
symposia around the world.
Painfully, some of the lessons we
have to teach the world are the outgrowths of our nation's wars and
conflicts, as our experiences have made us experts in dealing with mass
casualty incidents and rehabilitating victims of terrorism. Yet in
today's tense global climate, these experiences are vital for the
provision of health care, and we are proud to be able to educate others
in being prepared for such eventualities even as we pray they never
come to pass.
Copyright © 2008, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
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