As usual there were two tracks of lectures, one in Hebrew and one in English. Each lecturer spoke to both groups and in both languages.
Opening remarks began with Suzanne Patt Benvinisti telling the audience that in the past week Hadassah hospital had received 15 wounded soldiers for treatment. She then told us about her cousin whose legs had been very badly injured and in danger of amputation. Ellen Shemesh of the Levonah chapter in Modi’in and senior vice President of Hadassah Israel, read Psalm 130, a prayer for well being in a time of national distress.
Rivkah Cooper, President Hadassah-Israel welcomed the audience for coming to learn about the latest advancements and research in the medical field, and expressed her gratitude for the help and support she is receiving during her first year as President. She thanked the Hadassah-Israel members and supporters for attending this Mediscope and hopes that their support will continue.
Barbara Sofer, Director of Public Relations for Hadassah in Israel told us about the new Gandel Rehabilitation Centre on Mount Scopus and the important work being done there from its first working day.
Professor Yoram Weiss, Director General of the Hadassah Medical Organisation in Israel also spoke, and greeted the audience.
The first speaker, Dr Ahmed Naama, head of emergency medicine had been delayed in his department, but was eventually introduced by Ellen Davies, also of the Hadassah Levonah Chapter in Modi’in. He was born at the Hadassah hospital on Mount Scopus and has been working at Hadassah for 14 years.
He told us that a year ago the only trauma unit in the area was at Hadassah. It has 63 beds that are almost always occupied, and it is located in a protected area. He pointed out that the mixed ethnicity of staff working together in the department reflects the DNA of Hadassah’s mission.
His department sends a global quality blood to the battlefield for emergency transfusions before a soldier or victim is sent by helicopter to the hospital and is rushed through to his department. Whatever the condition of a new patient may be, he or she is first taken to the emergency department for initial assessment.
Professor Rivka Dresner Pollak translates scientific research into applications for treatments and has been working in her laboratory in the endocrinology department for 15 years. Much of her work concerns women’s issues, such as menopause and its consequences of bone loss, obesity and more. She told us that there has been a revolution in Hormone Replacement Therapy. Much more is known today, and doses can be adjusted to better suit the individual.
A new Centre for Treatment of Obesity will soon open to help overcome this problem. It will take into account the many factors that cause obesity in an effort to reduce it.
Another function of this new centre will help cancer patients suffering the endocrinological side effects from cancer treatment.
Dr Rachel Goldstein, a clinical pharmacist, spoke about research, or lack of it, into the efficacy, or not, of supplements. She opened the minds of those of us who take supplements without checking their credentials, and explained how we should recognise whether a certain product has been certified by the FDA, an internationally accepted standard.
She explained the working of the FDA, but also explained the gap between certification and a product on a shop counter, for it seems that during part of the marketing-retail chain there is no control.
Some alternative materials may be potentially dangerous for the individual, such as taking too high doses, or adverse interactions with other medications. Other substances, such as melatonin for preventing insomnia, or honey for healing wounds, are popular remedies that are proven to be effective.
Dr Tanir Allweiss, is a specialist in breast surgery and Medical Director, Breast Health Center at Hadassah.
With emphasis on specialist training, community outreach at both Ein Kerem and Mount Scopus clinics, the Breast Health Centre provides all tests and services in one unit, which is a one stop shop for screening, mammogram, ultrasound, and where personalized risk assessment and high risk treatment take place.
Dr Allweiss mentioned their methods of diagnosing, such as imaging, biopsies, pathology work. Then the next stage of specialized breast surgery, plastic procedures, radiation, oncological therapy, and tissue procurement for research.
A dedicated nurse coordinator, and surgical nurses follow through from surgery to recovery, and there is a survival stage, and also an end-of-life care, each with their own aspects of care for the patient.
The doctor gave a list of activities that coordinate to all stages of the illness, such as physical rehabilitation, psycho social support groups, lifestyle changes.
There is also the additional comprehensive research programme that studies issues such as genetics, biology and immunology, and digital health and AI (Artificial intelligence)
Much more is included in their programmes for personal centred medicare, the matters of patients’ children needing care, sense of loneliness being suffered by the patient, fertility, challenges of everyday life. The haredi community has other elements which include faith and religion which can be sources of strength, gender roles in the family, body and modesty .
For Arabic speaking patients there are Arabic speaking nurses and therapists
Dr Myriam Grunewald introduced us all to, I think, a new technology previously not known to most of us. She is the director of the Hadassah ORGANOID Centre, whose mission it is to advance medical care for a patient that will help him or her to be restored back to a normal life. The organoid replaces a diseased part of the body.
Depending on the requirement, her laboratory can develop partial organoid cultures from a patient’s biopsy test, develop, then re-insert them into the patient in the hope that it leads to recovery.
She described how her laboratory takes a biopsy from the patient, processes the material with an enzyme, and waits for its seed cells to grow and expand. There has been a technological breakthrough and it is now possible to create organoids of most parts of the body.
Hadassah has the first Biobank in Israel and it is located in Dr Gruenwald’s department. Hadassah collaborates with laboratories in other institutions such as the Weizmann Institute.
Impressively, there is a long list of applications of organoids within the medical profession that are helping to save lives and it comes under the heading of Regenerative Medicine.
Article and Pictures by Marion Stone of the Mor & Levonah Chapters in Modi'in.
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