Israel Active

World Diabetes Day was marked in Israel by the announcement that leg catheterisations performed at Haifa’s Rambam hospital over the last two years have prevented 521 diabetics from having amputations. The procedure is available in only a few medical centers in the world.

Israeli biotech Kamada announced positive results in pre-clinical trials of its Alpha-1 Antitrypsin (AAT) protein. AAT has potential for treating bacterial lung infections and also to prevent implant rejection. AAT is the active ingredient in Kamada’s Glassia , used to treat emphysema.

Cannabis is administered without much controversy to over 10,000 Israeli patients, among them aging Holocaust survivors who struggle to cope with disease. Marijuana is illegal in Israel, but medical use has been permitted since the early nineties for cancer patients and those with pain-related illnesses such as Parkinson's, Multiple Sclerosis, and even post-traumatic stress disorder.

Israeli Medical Device Innovations on display at Medica 2012 in Dusseldorf included Motorika’s ReoTherapy. Stroke victims retrain their brains using this unique robotic rehabilitation device, which has been achieving amazing results in recovering limb mobility.

(Thanks to Israel21c) About 125,000 people die each year because they failed to take their medication correctly. Israel’s Vaica has a programmable “smart” pillbox called SimpleMed that sends flashing light and sound reminders when a pill needs to be taken, and can alert a call center when a pill is skipped.

Israel’s Vitalgo Systems’ first product is the state-of-the-art Total Lift Bed™ which is the only hospital-grade bed in the world that can elevate someone safely from a lying to a fully standing position – with zero lifting on the part of the caregiver. (The youtube is a bit unusual.)

Weizmann researchers have discovered that the body’s bone marrow is home to stem cells that can be transformed into different types of mature blood immune cells to deal with a crisis. The level of detail within the discovery, however, will eventually lead to better medical treatments.

The phrase “you cannot make a silk purse from a sow’s ear” is no longer true. Israel Technion scientists have used pig tissue to create a thick “scaffold” for heart muscle. It will allow doctors to rehabilitate the damaged scar tissue caused by heart attacks.

Israel is to conduct part of an international investigation into targeted treatment of secondary cancer. Such patients do not respond to surgery or radiotherapy. But analysis of the genetic mutations of their tumours may identify medication that could destroy the cancer throughout the body.

It was one of those days that newsletter subscriber Jay Wohlgelernter was pleased that he went into work at Schneider Children's Medical Centre in Petach Tikvah.