Israel Active

Dr. Michal Kaufmann of Jerusalem’s Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital performed cochlear implant surgery on 16 Palestinian Arab deaf and mute children to allow them to hear for the first time in their lives.  She performed six of the operations in just one month.

I reported previously (May 2015) on the pain measurement device developed by Israel’s Medasense Biometrics.  The innovative PMD200 has now received CE approval, allowing physicians to assess and manage pain for patients who cannot communicate.

For the first time in Israel, doctors at Beersheba’s Soroka-University Medical Center performed a brain catheterization on a patient suffering from severe tinnitus (ringing in the ears).  The condition was due to an aneurysm of veins in the brain, causing blood flow to press on air cells in the ear.

Hebrew University of Jerusalem scientists have discovered that dyslexics have a shorter implicit memory than non-dyslexics. On hearing a sound repeated sometime later, dyslexics failed to recognize it.  The findings pave the way to early diagnosis and intervention.

Yet another diagnostic algorithm from Israel’s Zebra Medical Vision.  This time its machine and deep learning Imaging Analytics engine will be able to detect compression fractures from uploaded scans and also identify people at risk of subsequent osteoporotic fractures.

Israel’s Teva expects FDA approval in 2017 for seven innovative treatments. They include for chronic migraine, multiple sclerosis, Huntington's Disease and tardive dyskinesia (movement disorder).

Biophysicists from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have found that bacteria go dormant to prevent being killed by antibiotics.  This process also helps the bacteria develop faster resistance and suggests that resistance can be prevented by targeting dormant bacteria with separate treatments.

Israel's national volunteer emergency medical services organization, United Hatzalah, received the Jerusalem Prize for excellence in lifesaving. It was awarded in honor of the 3,200 volunteer Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs), paramedics, and doctors, who work with the organization.

Researchers from Israeli and Palestinian Arab hospitals together found risk factors for B Cell Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma. Studying 823 patients with the disease from both communities, plus a similar number of healthy controls, they found genetic, environmental, lifestyle and medical links.

Top Israeli surgeon Dr Ygal Rotenstreich of Sheba Medical Centre flew to the UK in a last-ditch attempt to save the sight of an Iraqi father-of-seven. The Iraqi stayed anonymous but was told in Turkey that Israel is at the cutting-edge of optical medicine. The appointment was made in London.