Newsletter of the Faculty of Health Sciences at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

Being different means making a difference

Dear Friends, Welcome to the first issue of Health Sciences News—a bi-annual pub-lication of The Faculty of Health Sciences. Within its pages you will find stories that share with you our research and academic achieve-ments and the less-known, personal sides of our faculty members. Our Faculty of Health Sciences is currently facing an unprecedented economic challenge because of the budgetary cuts imposed on Israeli universities. Nevertheless, we continue to meet our commitment to prepare competent and compassionate health practitioners and world-class researchers. We are proud of our Faculty’s achievements, none of which would be possible without the support of our friends who continue to stand with us in these difficult times as we continue to carry out our mission to improve the health of the Negev community and that of the world at large. Rivka Carmi, M. D.

Celebrating the

30th Anniversary

of the Faculty of Health Sciences

May 2004

Greetings from the Dean

Who Wants to Be Healthy and Live to Be 120?

4

Behind The Scenes: Professor Horowitz’s Movie Mania

5

Faculty’s Expertise Sought in Nepal Faculty Honors

5 5

Preventing Teen Sexual Violence

6

New Anesthesiology Fellowship Program

6

A Female Physician, Scientist, and Rabbi

6

Woman of Firsts: Ferial Abu Nadi overcomes obstacles to serve fellow Bedouin

7

Building Peace Through Medicine: Israeli and Palestinian students join hands to help pediatric cancer patients

2

At the Feet of The Great: Eli Lewis learns from Nobel Laureates

2

Agents of Disease, Agents of Terror: Dr. Leslie Lobel combats Smallpox and the Ebola Virus

3

Inside this issue:

Medical School Ranks First

8

Being Different Means Making a Difference

8

Physician's Oath Ceremony Seen Live Over Internet

7

Faculty Hosts Confer-ence of Regional Medi-cal Deans

7

Fall 2003 Volume 1, Issue 1

Page 2 The Beer-Sheva Experience Around the World

Building Peace Through Medicine: Israeli and Palestinian Students Join Hands to Help Pediatric Cancer Patients

Sixth-year medical student, doctoral candidate and recipi-ent of the Rector’s Award for outstanding students, Eli Lewis joined an elite group of ten distinguished doctoral candidates in the first-ever Israeli delegation at the prestig-ious Annual Meeting of Nobel Prize Winners in Lindau, Germany this summer. Throughout the five-day conference Eli met with Nobel Laureates in Physiology or Medicine to discuss the integra-tion of medicine and science. In talking with some of the world’s most esteemed scientists, both in formal settings and in café booths, Eli gained “a review of the disciplines that compose the medical sciences, and important pieces of wisdom that accumulate over a lifetime’s work.” From one interaction Eli learned that accuracy is of utmost importance. When one student asked a Nobel Laureate “How did receiving the Nobel Prize influence you?”, the prize winner responded, “Within that question is a problem of logic—Because I received it, how could I myself know how my life would differ had I not?”

An Israeli delegate, right, with cell biologist Günter Blobel, M.D., Ph.D., recipient of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

At the Feet of the Great: Eli Lewis learns from Nobel Laureates

Israeli, Palestinian, and Canadian medical stu-dents worked together in Toronto this summer to foster peace through medicine. The Faculty gained international attention as fifth-year medi-cal student Nir Brosh partnered with Palestini-ans from Al Kuds University. In the first three weeks, the group delved into the many aspects of Pediatric Oncology—from radiology to psychology—which helped Nir and the others "to understand the medical and psy-chosocial aspects of treating children with can-

cer.” They applied this knowledge in the final week, which each student spent alongside a par-ticipant at a summer camp for pediatric cancer patients and their families. Nir and his col-leagues returned home united by a renewed compassion for young cancer sufferers and their loved-ones. As a result of this collaboration with his Pales-tinian colleagues Nir reflects, “As an Israeli, I believe that when Israelis and Palestinians focus together on medicine, the similarities between us overcome our differences.”

Participants L-R: Adeeb Noser, Stephani Thompson, Racheli Goldfarb, Nir Brosh, Ahmad Daraghma, Alex Martiniuk, Rae Brager, Shannon Wives, and Marc Chertien

“Pathogens do not

recognize political

boundaries.”

Favorite Actors?

Gregory Peck Garry Cooper Gerard Philip

Max van Sidow (Bergman movies)

Burt Lancaster Vittorio Gassman

“Pathogens do not recognize political

boundaries.”

The New Center….

• Ddd • Dddd • dddd

Agents of Disease, Agents of

For centuries, outbreaks of disease such as the plague were terrifyingly unpre-dictable and uncontrolla-ble. Today, developments in science have improved our ability to contain the natural spreading of such diseases. But when it comes to the intentional scattering of disease, a potentially devastating tool of terrorism and in-ternational warfare, science has been danger-ously lacking in solutions. To combat this new threat, the development of new bio-defense strategies is imperative. To this end, Leslie Lobel, M.D., Ph.D., of the De-partment of Virology is at the forefront of bio-defense research. Using a technology once developed to combat serious infectious diseases, Dr. Lobel is isolat-ing and producing human monoclonal antibod-ies, or immunoprospecting, in order to treat and prevent the negative effects of biological agents such as smallpox. This highly contagious potential bioterrorist weapon has a history of successful treatment through passive immunity. However, because of a lack of immunization programs and the loss of effective immunity after ten years, Smallpox remains a serious threat. In fact, depending upon the strain, it can kill up to 30% of a popu-lation. Because the vaccine carries a significant risk of serious side-effects, an attractive alterna-

tive is o f fered by hu-m a n m o n o -c l o n a l antibod-ies that

can effectively neutralize the virus. Beyond smallpox, Dr. Lobel plans to develop human mono-clonal antibodies to other po-tentially deadly viruses such as Ebola, the most lethal of the hemorrhagic fevers. And he has already initiated collabora-tion in this respect with the Ugandan Virology Research Institute. Such international collabora-tion is vital to controlling deadly infectious diseases. Dr. Lobel points out that the re-cent outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, SARS, has shown that “pathogens do not recognize political bounda-ries.” As a result, he states, “we need a global response to bio-terrorism, not just a do-mestic one.” This need is driving Dr. Lo-

Research

Dr. Leslie Lobel

Page 3

Centers

Who Wants to be Healthy Who Wants to be Healthy Who Wants to be Healthy and Live to be and Live to be and Live to be 120120120???

At the popular workshop, “Who Wants to Be Healthy?”, of the Center for Multidisciplinary Re-search in Aging, Negev seniors learn how to live longer, healthier lives. Workshop participants get tips for healthy living, the latest information on nutrition, and also practice conditioning exercises at BGU’s sports facility. The Center, begun in 2000, makes life easier for seniors through ongoing public educational work-shops and professional forums. Researchers share insight about new developments so that more blood tests can be done with a mere finger prick. Sociologists, nurses, and architects together draw up safer floor-plans for senior housing. In cooperation with several Faculty divisions and Israeli organizations the Center is working to im-prove the quality of life for the more than 800,000 Israelis aged 60 and older.

Recent Highlights

Community Outreach Senior Health Seminars Offered with The Association for Planning and Development of Services for Israel’s Ederly (ESHEL) and The Faculty’s Division for Community Health

Professionals from the Abraham Interna-tional Center on Nutrition discussed the latest information on diet and nutritional supplements; BGU’s Sports Center staff gave physical exercise instruction.

Professional Workshops Medications and Aging In cooperation with the School of Pharmacy and The Faculty’s Division for Community Health

The elderly population uses about four-times more prescription drugs than the young but is particularly susceptible to side effects.

Innovations in Bio-Nano Technologies In cooperation with Ben Gurion University’s Institute for Applied Biology

The joining of nano-technologies and bio-technology is improving medical diagnostics and treatments; tests that once needed vials of blood soon will take a mere finger prick.

Senior-Specific Housing In cooperation with the Israel Gerontological Society

Building construction and floor-plans are being adapted to the safety needs of the aged.

Coming in January 2004:

International Symposium on Ethics in Critical Care

In Memory of Dr. Allan Fisher

Page 4

People Make a Difference

Faculty Honors • Prof. Shifra Shvarts, Health

Systems Management, won the esteemed Einhorn Prize for Research of the Hebrew Lan-guage and Literature in Medi-cine.

• Psychiatrists Prof. Jonathan

Benjamin, Dr. Leonid Knyaz-hansky, Dr. Uri Loewenthal, Dr. Andrey Belgorodsky, and Dr. Hagit Cohen, with Internist Dr. Jonathan Arbelle, were honored by the European Col-lege of Neuropsychopharma-cology for their study of the Influence of Metyrapone on Anxiety.

• Batia Gvili of the Faculty’s

Teaching Unit won the 2003 President’s Award given to outstanding employees.

Faculty’s Expertise Sought in Nepal

In view of the Faculty of Health Sciences’ outstanding work in community medicine, the new Katmandu University Medical School and the Foreign Ministry of Israel requested a team of experts from the Faculty to as-sist in establishing a clinical training program. Nepal’s Minister of Health Sci-ences officially welcomed the Faculty’s team of physicians, composed of Prof. Mick Alkan, Dr. Howard Tandeter, Dr. Asher Moser, and Dr. Baruch Weinreb. Working with their Nepali col-leagues, the team both success-fully established a clerkship pro-gram in Katmandu and furthered Israeli-Nepali relations.

BB EHINEHIN DD THE SS CENECENE SS PROFESSOR HOROWITZ’S

MOVIE MANIA

Prof. Yaakov Horowitz

Prof. Yaakov Horowitz’s students call him an encyclopedia of medical knowledge; his colleagues respect his professional opinion; his patients appreciate his caring treatment; and the research community awaits his next paper coauthored with his wife, Prof. Shulamit Horowitz of the Department of Microbi-ology and Immunology. But there is another, less-known, side to the man in the white coat: his collection of movies and related books should earn him a page in the Guinness Book of Records. Throughout the past 55 years, since he saw his first movie as a toddler, Prof. Yaakov Horowitz has watched an average of one movie per day—at least 20,000 movies—and he can eas-ily recite from memory the entire script of a classical film. Though at one time he would skip school to sneak a peak, nowadays he refrains from playing hooky. But his home cin-ema awaits him, where he can select from nearly a century of film-making—from black and white to Technicolor. From such an enthusiast one might expect a tough critic. On the contrary, his love is eclectic. “I like Hollywood movies, the Westerns, the screwball comedies, the action and detective movies.” Prof. Horowitz is one of the Faculty of Health Science’s well-rounded physicians who makes a difference every day.

Page 5

It is reported that in Israel one in three girls will be sexually abused by her peers before age eighteen. In response, the Medi-cal Students Association of the Negev conducts the Ma’amatz Program for the Prevention of Sexual Violence among Youth. In one Beer-Sheva classroom, 25 teens are captivated by a video portraying two adolescents who are alone in a room. Though the girl refuses intimacy, the boy forces himself upon her. The narrator then queries, "What did she think would happen if she stayed with him overnight? What did she think they’d do? Play pick-up sticks?" The film is followed by discus-sion and role-playing, through which medical students instruct youth about sexual violence in society—the misconceptions, common potentially dangerous situations, and how to handle them. As a result, the youth dis-cover that girls have the right to say “No,” and that boys must abide by that word. The Medical Students’ Associa-tion of the Negev continues its work in the community although some high schools find this pro-gram’s low cost prohibitive. In spite of today’s economic diffi-culties, we can prevent the pre-ventable.

Working Together to Prevent

Teen Sexual Violence

The Spirit of Beer-Sheva

A woman of many hats visited the Faculty this summer. Margaret Jacobi, physician, physiologist, and rabbi, was the guest of the Departments of Medical Ethics, Medical Education and Jewish Thought. As a trained physician, Rabbi Dr. Jacobi sees the need to communicate compassionately. As an experienced Physi-ologist she understands much of “how science works—what it can tell us and what it cannot.” Today in her role as the Rabbi of Birmingham Progres-sive Synagogue she integrates science and medicine as she works to “make Judaism a meaningful part of peo-ple’s lives.” During her visit, she explored the doctor-patient relation-ship in the Talmud and Halachic sources. Her work un-derscores the Faculty's core value of treating the whole patient.

New training in Beer-Sheva enables anesthesiologists to use technology more effectively, to handle crises more smoothly, and to attend patients with more confidence. The newly-created one-year Fellowship Program in Anes-thesiology and related fields attracted fellows from around the world. Chosen from a competitive applicant pool, Dr. Eugen Gurski, Dr. Vadim Pasiuga and Dr. Maryana Doitchinova came from Moldova, Russia, and Bulgaria, respectively. While in Beer-Sheva the fellows competed the program’s demanding schedule. Participants worked daily in the departments of Anesthesiology and Critical Care, spent many night and weekend hours on call, and conducted significant research projects.

(L-R) Drs. E. Gurski, V. Pasiuga and M. Doitchinova

A Female Physician, Scientist and Rabbi?

New Anesthesiology Fellowship Program

Page 6

People Make a Difference

F. Abu Nadi measures a patients’ height

Physician's Oath Ceremony Seen Live Over Internet Over forty scientists and health professionals

from Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Canada, and Jordan convened in June at the Faculty to build Arab-Israeli cooperation through health initiatives in an atmosphere of scholarship and collaboration. Prof. Rivka Carmi hosted the Third Canadian International Scientific Exchange Program (CISEPO) Conference of Regional Medical Deans, which was supported in part by the Hu-man Security Program of Canada’s Department for Foreign Affairs and International Trade. Participants discussed improving the Middle East’s health care through the Project for Hear-ing Loss Screening in Newborns, sponsored by the Middle East Association for Managing Hear-ing Loss (MEHA), and through education on maternal and child health by medical students. In the spirit of continuing cooperation, in Octo-ber Faculty members participated in a similar meeting in Aqaba.

Faculty Hosts Conference of Regional Medical Deans

In the Bedouin village of Umm Batin, a young girl chosen to tend her father’s sheep had a dream of completing a university education. She fought against the pressures of her family and fellow tribesmen, and with passion and persis-tence completed her elementary schooling. This schoolgirl, Ferial Abu Nadi of the Abu Nadi tribe, has become a woman of firsts: the first woman of her tribe to have completed high school; the first Bedouin female to have earned a Bachelor’s Degree of Nursing; the first Bedouin female who is completing a Masters of Science with a specialization in Epidemiology; and the first Bedouin female to be admitted to a doctor-ate program in Epidemiology. In her childhood, Ferial saw much illness treated

with folk medicine. This stimulated her desire to alleviate suffering and encouraged her to choose a career in nursing. “Had it not been for Ben-Gurion University,” says Ferial, “I would never have fulfilled my dream of education and service to my people.” Soon she will continue her studies with the gen-erous support of friends of the British Associates of Ben-Gurion University. In pursuing this edu-cational path, Ferial has become a model for her younger sisters and other young Bedouin women. The Faculty is proud to educate health care professionals who both serve the people of Israel and inspire future generations.

A Woman of Firsts: Ferial Abu Nadi Overcomes Obstacles to Serve Fellow Bedouin

Page 7

Friends and family members of the first-year students in the BGU-Columbia University M.D. Program in International Health and Medicine watched online as the students took the Physi-cian's Oath this past October. For the first time in the program’s history the ceremony was broadcast over the internet to hometowns around the world—in Sri Lanka, Belgium, the United States, Brazil, Canada, the Ukraine and Hong Kong. First-year students take the Physician's Oath as soon as they begin to interact with patients, which reinforces BGU's core values of ethical community-oriented patient care. With the shared goal of practicing medicine to make the world more humane, the students committed themselves to practicing medicine with profes-sionalism, empathy and compassion.

Produced by:

The Office of Public Relations Faculty of Health Sciences

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

P.O. Box 653

Beer-Sheva 84105 Israel

Tel: (972-8) 647-7408 Fax: (972-8) 647-7659

Please send submissions,

comments and subscription requests to:

rtemes@bgumail.bgu.ac.il

Web site: http//fohs.bgu.ac.il

Editor: Ronit Temes, M.A.

Public Relations Coordinator

Production Editor: Kristin Wagner, B.A.

Compiled by:

Prof. Gabriel Gurman, M.D.

Vice-Dean for Public Relations

Denis Weintraub, M.A. Academic Research

Photography

Ariel Shiloh, Medical Student Denis Weintraub, M.A.

From left to right: Prof. G. Gurman, K. Wagner, D. Weintraub, and R. Temes

Joyce and Irving Goldman Medical School

Ranks at the Top

According to a recent survey by The Samuel Neaman Institute for the advance-ment of Research in Science and Technology, which compared the levels of satisfaction among graduates of the major Israeli medical schools, The Joyce and Irving Goldman Medical School received the highest scores. In all catego-ries our medical graduates are most satisfied with their preparation.

Medical School Graduates' Average Satisfaction 2003

0

0 .5

1

1 .5

2

2 .5

3

3 .5

4

4 .5

5

Beer Sheva Tel Aviv HebrewUniversity

TechnionPre-Clinical Studies Clinical Studies Overall Studies

In the Faculty of Health Sciences, Being Different Means Making a Difference

• Character assessment of applicants ensures that those chosen will profit

from training in holistic health care • Curriculum is kept current and applicable through research and stu-

dent feedback • Thorough understanding of complex concepts is gained through the

“Spiral” System of Instruction, which teaches the material from different angles in successive years of study • Students enhance their understanding by instructing others

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev The Faculty of Health Sciences Office of Public Relations P.O. Box 653 • Beer-Sheva 84105 • Israel

“The Beer-Sheva Experiment” is a success

Ben-Gurion University

Tel Aviv University

The Technion

Hebrew University

Page 8 Being Different Makes a Difference