Israel Active

The inaugural South American MedEx event took place in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Over 60 doctors came from all over Argentina and neighboring Uruguay to be assisted with their Aliyah planning and licensing. (see for previous MedEx events in Europe and USA).

The Veriton SPECT/CT system from Israel’s Spectrum Dynamics performs a bone scan in 12 mins instead of the usual 45. Image quality is also far better, thanks to its camera with 12 heads, each with a novel digital radiation detector that gets near to the patient. Used at Schneider hospital and globally.

Removing metal fragments from the neck and head is complex. At the Galilee Medical Center, they use a small metal detector, purchased on-line from AliExpress, to locate the exact position of bullets or fragments of shrapnel, which are then removed without damage to vital tissues.

United Hatzalah has inaugurated 76 new ambucycles (emergency motorcycles) – one for each of modern Israel’s 76 years. The vehicles were paid for in a matching partnership with philanthropist Dr. Miriam Adelson and will be deployed all over Israel. Several were dedicated to the memory of fallen medics.

Rachel Teitelbaum moved to Israel from the USA in 2003 and founded Hervana Bio in 2008. It has developed a safe contraceptive tablet containing the bacteria lactobacilli found in yoghurt but enhanced to produce antibodies that bind to sperm, removing them from the fertilization process.

Doctors at Netanya’s Laniado Medical Center have for the first time in Israel used an AURYON laser device from Eximo Medical (see previously) to remove an arterial blockage in a patient’s leg and avoid amputation. Israel’s Eximo was acquired by US-based AngioDynamics in 2019.

Dr. Amir Orlev, director of the cardiology department at Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center, was on the way to work when he noticed a man lying on the side of the road. He diagnosed that he was suffering from a massive blood clot in the lung, catheterized him, and saved his life.

Researchers at Israel’s Weizmann Institute have enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to illuminate previously undetectable pancreatic tumors. They injected deuterium-enriched glucose into the bloodstream. The tumors eat the glucose and excrete lactate that MRIs can reveal.

Doron (31) was only 25 years-old when he received a Ph.D. in mathematics from the Technion in 2018. Today he is a fourth-year Technion medical student and intends to combine his expertise in mathematics with medicine to help people with mental illness. As a child, Doron “operated” on his toy animals.

Israeli Ronit and a kidney transplant recipient in Czechia (Czech Republic) underwent a kidney exchange thanks to Israel’s National Transplant Center. Ronit’s friend Yair donated his kidney to the Czech recipient, whose wife donated her kidney to Ronit.