Prof Mark Clarfield was brought up and educated in Toronto, receiving his MD from the University of Toronto in 1975. He specialised first in Family Medicine, then Community Medicine and Public Health and finally in Geriatrics. Together with his wife, Dr. Ora Paltiel, also a physician (haematology and clinical epidemiology), he moved to Montreal, where he was with the Faculty of Medicine at McGill University from 1978 -1992.
During that period, Clarfield was Chief of Geriatrics at the Sir Mortimer B. Davis – Jewish General Hospital as well as head of the McGill University Division of Geriatric Medicine. He was the Assistant Dean of Students at the Faculty from 1989-92 and reached the rank of Professor. He maintains an adjunct status at McGill University.
In 1992 the Clarfield family he moved to Israel. From 1994-2001 Mark was Head of the Division of Geriatrics at the Ministry of Health in Jerusalem. He was appointed Head of Geriatrics at the Soroka Hospital (a 1,100 bed acute care institution) and the Sidonie Hecht Professor at Ben-Gurion University (BGU) in Beersheva where he now works. In 2009 he was appointed head of BGU’s Medical School for International Health. He is the medical consultant to Eshel, the Association for the Development of Services for the Elderly, in Jerusalem. Prof Clarfield’s research interests include Alzheimer’s Disease and the related dementias, the organization of health care services, medical history and ethics. He also publishes medical humour, book reviews and miscellaneous pieces in various newspapers. Described as a “journalistic nudnik” he has published many letters to the editor in publications around the world, and wrote a blog about his experiences as a physician in Beersheva during times of war.
Prof Clarfield enjoys performing folk music with his band, “The Unstrung Heroes”.