Israel Active

A team from the Israel Trauma Coalition has gone to the Boston suburb of Watertown to help develop “a recovery process” for the local school system. Watertown was the epicenter of the manhunt for the Boston Marathon bombers. Children in the area are still reeling from the event.

Professor Pnina Klein of Bar-Ilan University has developed an innovative in-home training program for caregivers and HIV-infected mothers. Children in their care gained significantly improved language skills, memory and cognitive abilities.

Reuth Medical Center in Tel Aviv announced that, following a six-month trial of Cupron’s anti-bacterial copper-embedded linens, it will be the world’s first hospital to fully deploy copper-embedded textiles in all its patient-related hospital textiles. (see current JPost blog)

All nine varieties of dates grown in Israel are better than other varieties at helping protect those who consume them against cardiovascular diseases. Researchers from Haifa’s Rambam hospital and Israel’s Technion have proved this in a study published in the prestigious Journal of Agriculture Food Chemistry. Three dates a day reduce triglycerides and improve cholesterol.

World ORT Kadima Mada in Israel now provides educational facilities in all 35 Israeli hospitals with children’s units. The Swiss-based SASA Setton Foundation has just made a $3.2 million investment to cover youngsters at psychiatric hospitals and mental health units.

Ten percent of babies are born with vascular defects, of which most are incorrectly diagnosed and can be life threatening. With the opening of a new unit in Jerusalem at Hadassah Medical Center, these children no longer need to be sent abroad for this type of surgery.

Israel’s Elad Systems has developed a smart-phone app to enable doctors at Tel Hashomer’s Sheba Medical Center to view the medical files of patients in real time. It will show data on hospitalization, operations, clinic visits, medical tests, prescriptions and sensitivities to help speed diagnosis.

Three Israelis invented the science of Biogerontology (the study of longevity and the aging process) some 40 years ago. Recently, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev hosted the eighth European Congress of Biogerontology — the first time this event was held in Israel.

Doctors at Haifa’s Rambam hospital performed one of the most difficult surgical procedures possible. Although one twin was not viable and was stillborn, the other is now fighting for its life. There have been only 150 cases of similarly conjoined twins in the last 126 years.

Israel marked “International Week for Encouraging Vaccinations” by announcing that the Prevnar vaccination introduced in 2009 had reduced annual cases of pneumonia by 70%. The rotavirus vaccine, added in 2010, has reduced gastrointestinal illness in children by 60%.