Israel Active

World Health Organization director general Margaret Chan praised Israel’s national health infrastructure on her first visit to Israel. She said, “I’ve come here to learn from your excellent health system”. She also visited Gaza children at Tel Aviv’s Dana-Dwek Children’s Hospital.

Here is a report on the cancer-screening program conducted at Tel Aviv’s Sourasky Medical Center. Its Integrated Cancer Prevention Center program is considered to be unique in the World. In a few hours you get examined for early detection of at least 11 most common cancers.

Israel’s Health Ministry has for the first time issued standards for food served in Israeli hospitals, aiming to guarantee that patients receive more wholesome and tastier meals. Changes include less salt, wholegrain bread, menu choice, low fat poultry and fish and dairy products with up to 5 percent fat.

The Governor of the US State of Maryland and the President of the University of Maryland, Baltimore visited the Hebrew University Hadassah School of Medicine in Jerusalem. They pledged increased collaboration in research and academia.

A Tel Aviv University team says they can diagnose the psychiatric disease of schizophrenia at an early stage. They take samples of nerve cells from the upper internal part of the nose and test for a specific molecule of micro-RNA that has high levels in schizophrenia patients. Previous tests could only be performed post-mortem on the brain.

Sheba Medical Center researchers and Israeli start-up Lev-El Diagnostics of Heart Disease have developed an algorithm that could save lives by quickly identifying patients with heart disease. Patients used to have to wear heart monitors for 24 - 48 hours. Now they are diagnosed in one hour.

18 Israeli companies develop or market cell-based treatment products - an unprecedented large proportion in relation to the country’s population. All of them are attending the Israstem Conference in Ramat Gan starting Apr 22, to discuss stem cells, cell therapy, and regenerative medicine.

Researchers at Tel Aviv University gave electric stimulation to the brains of rats and found that high-frequency “bursts” produced the same destructive plaques found in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients.

Israel’s BiolineRX has announced positive results for the Phase IIa clinical trial of BL-7040, an oral treatment for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease affect as many as 1.4 million individuals in the US alone.

Israeli start-up Oxitone has developed a blood-oxygen monitor that can be worn on the wrist by those “at risk” to warn of any sudden deterioration in their condition. Oxitone has been selected for GE Healthcare’s Start-Up Health Academy Entrepreneurship Program – one of only two companies outside of the US to be chosen for their 3-year program that turns fledgling businesses into prime companies.