Israel Active

(Thanks to Israel21c) Israel’s TouchéMedical is developing the world’s smallest, cheapest and smartest patch pump, for patients of all ages with diabetes, Parkinson’s and other chronic conditions.

Israel’s MediSafe is opening an office in Boston.  It will help market MediSafe’s medication reminder app, which up to now has been promoted mainly by world of mouth.  Despite this, the app has been downloaded 1.3 million times and is used regularly by hundreds of thousands.   

Representatives from 60 countries will attend Israel’s MEDinISRAEL conference from 23-26 March.  They will join 120 Israeli medical device companies and biotechs to discuss and demonstrate Israel’s latest developments in medical innovation.

Aziz Kaddan and Anas Abu Mukh began degree courses at Haifa University when they were 16 years old.  They were just 19 when they thought up Myndlift - an app that teaches ADHD children and adults to concentrate by using their brainwaves to display a bright image.

A team of Israeli and Japanese researchers has embarked on a project to discover how autistic spectrum disorder develops in the brain. It follows the conference “Advances in Brain Sciences”, jointly hosted by the Weizmann Institute of Science and Japan’s RIKEN Brain Science Institute.

Hebrew University of Jerusalem researchers have discovered that neutrophils (a form of white blood cell) contain many different subtypes. Some of these prevent cancer and others promote it. It opens avenues for therapies that increase anti-tumor neutrophils and limit pro-tumor ones.

(Thanks to Israel21c) Norway’s largest charitable organization, the Olav Thon Foundation has chosen Tel Aviv University cancer geneticist Professor Yosef Shiloh as one of the two recipients of its very first international medical research award.

Israel’s Health Council has added an additional 73 medicines and technologies into the Government’s subsidized “Health Basket”.  The changes will benefit 350,000 Israelis at a cost of NIS 324 million.  

Scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem are studying brain activity of blind people in order to shed new light on how our brains can adpt to the rapid cultural and technological changes of the 21st Century.  Already they have found that reading Braille utilizes “visual” areas of the brain.

A 35-year-old study by Israel’s Professor Raphael Mechoulam convinced Denver-based physician Dr. Alan Shackelford to use synthesized cannabidiol or CBD to save 5-year-old Charlotte Figi who suffered 300 epileptic fits a week.  Dr Shackelford immigrated to Israel in 2012.