Israel Active

United Hatzalah is the biggest volunteer emergency medical organization in Israel, responding to over 2,000 calls each day. Now, they are rolling out an AI system in 20 new ambulances to save lives. (See previously)

A Hebrew University / Portuguese-led team of international researchers has discovered why taking folic acid during pregnancy protects the fetus from birth defects. Folic acid activates the ALDH1L1 gene, which impacts how the nervous system develops, especially the brain and spinal cord.

Remember (see ) the Tel Aviv University study that showed positive thinking helped increase antibodies from vaccination? Now Bar-Ilan University scientists have found that 90% of people heal faster from skin inflammation injury by focusing on their pain. It increases the body’s immune response.

Jerusalem’s Hadassah Ein Kerem is using, for the first time in the world, Alpha DaRT radiation technology from Israel’s Alpha Tau (see previously) to treat a patient with recurrent glioblastoma (aggressive brain tumors). Alpha Tau’s CEO Uzi Sofer called it a “Zionist mission”.

Researchers from Israel’s Technion and the USA have developed a new method, called ELITE, that accelerates and enhances MRI scans used in breast cancer imaging. It combines AI with advanced mathematical modelling to enable dynamic MRI imaging at unprecedented speed and accuracy.

Israeli scientists have developed a blood test that is over 90% accurate at diagnosing lung cancer. Instead of genetic sequencing, it identifies the tumor’s chemical ‘fingerprint’ with light, using a technology that can be implemented in standard clinical laboratories.

Surgeons at Clalit-Beilinson Hospital successfully removed a cancer patient's sternum and part of her ribs before reconstructing her chest with a custom 3D-printed implant. It is the first time in Israel that an entire 3D-printed chest cage has been implanted to reconstruct the chest wall.

66-year-old Gonen Klein, of Degania Bet, had advanced metastatic prostate cancer. After treatment with Lutetium-177 PSMA at Ziv Medical Center in Tzfat, follow-up imaging and blood tests showed no detectable sign of disease. His wife Rivka said “I feel I've been blessed with my husband again."

The previous newsletter reported on the work of doctors from Israel’s Save A Child’s Heart in Rwanda. Now they have moved on to Zambia, training the country’s first pediatric heart surgeons, plus several from neighboring Tanzania. Together, they saved 10 children during the week-long mission.

Bar-Ilan University researcher Jonathan Rabinowitz has led to a new feature in the Moovit app that allows public transportation users to choose routes with more walking while reaching their destinations in the same amount of time - or even faster. The feature will encourage a more healthy population.