Dr David Spitzer is usually known as a general practitioner in North London. As he spends part of his time in Stamford Hill, he does see families with many children….

Earlier in 2022, however, he noticed a call out on the Jewish Doctors’ Group from Dr Karyn Moshal, asking for help with refugee children who are escaping from the ongoing violence and war in the Ukraine…….

This linked him in turn to the organisation “Tikva” with a core mission: “care for the homeless, abandoned and abused Jewish children of Ukraine and neighbouring regions of the former Soviet Union”. Some of us will have read about the Tikva CFO, Jeremy Posen, and his mission to rescue of many children from Odessa.

So David took up the call, and volunteered….

His messages and tweets from the field kept us informed in a different way.

The war suddenly had a “human face”, a medical colleague as an eye witness about its effects. Thus “In our prayers, we constantly request shalom, peace. Like air, food and shelter, peace is an essential prerequisite to life. But in our daily lives, how much do we appreciate it?

We are honoured that David has agreed to talk to the Jewish Medical Association UK about his experiences.

Watch a recording of the event here.

Prof Edelstein is a UK trained Public Health doctor, specialised in infectious disease and vaccine epidemiology. His expertise and interests include vaccine epidemiology and policy, health inequalities outbreak management, data quality and use and the role of digital tools to improve public health. At Bar Ilan University his focus in on reducing health inequalities in both infectious and non-communicable diseases in the multi-ethnic population of Northern Israel. Prior to moving to Israel (August 2020) he was a consultant in Public Health England’s immunization team, an associate professor at LSHTM and a research fellow at Chatham House’s Centre on Global Health Security. He is deputy editor of Epidemiology & Infection and former President of Infectious Diseases section, European Public Health Association.

In his talk Prof Edelstein will describe some preliminary findings from his team describing the protective effect of COVID19 vaccination against long term effects of SARS CoV-2 infection, sometimes referred to as long COVID. He will also outline future research plans.

Watch a recording here

JAMI trustee and co-chair of their clinical governance committee.

Abigail is a Specialist Registrar in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust. This year she has taken on the role of fellow in medical education for East London NHS Foundation Trust and honorary lecturer at Queen Mary University of London, designing and delivering undergraduate medical education in psychiatry. Abigail sits on the Royal College of Psychiatrists wellbeing committee and is chair of the London psychiatry teaching fellow forum.

Abigail has recently been appointed a trustee of JAMI and co-chairs their clinical governance committee. She will talk about current challenges in child mental health, the exciting launch of JAMI’s child and young person pilot and some of the resources they have to offer.

Please pre-register here

Gary L. Freed MD, MPH is the Percy and Mary Murphy Professor of Pediatrics in the School of Medicine and Professor of Health Management and Policy in the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan. He serves as the Director of Faculty Programs in the Office for Health Equity and Inclusion, and Associate Chair in the Department of Pediatrics.

Dr. Freed was the founding director of the Susan B. Meister Child Health Evaluation and Research Center at Michigan and also founded the first pediatric health services research unit in Australia.

He is a past president of the Society for Pediatric Research, the largest research society in child health. He is past chair of the US Department of Health and Human Services National Vaccine Advisory Committee and a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Watch a recording of the event here.

Dr John Marks (General Practitioner, Borehamwood, 1954-90; Chairman, British Medical Association 1984-90)

Dr John Marks qualified in medicine in Edinburgh on 5th July 1948 – the day that the NHS was estabiished. He is one of the few surviving doctors from that era. His six-yea r term of office as BMA Chair was unique. He led a campaign against BMA Council’s decision to recommend an annual registration fee to the GMC without prior reform of its constitution, and led the profession’s opposition to the internal market. He played a major role in defending the 1967 Abortion Act. He also led campaigns in favour of restricting corporal punishment, about wearing seatbelts; and about respecting confidentiality of people with AIDS. Alongside his major public roles, he has been active in Jewish affairs: he was one of the 35 people who founded the Borehamwood and Elstree Synagogue, and was its first Honorary Treasurer – this is now the largest Jewish community in the UK. His autobiography “The NHS: Beginning, Middle and End?” was published in 2008. He is married to Dr Shirley Marks, who also worked as a General Practitioner, and their son Dr Richard Marks is an anaesthetist.

Watch a recording of the event here.

Prof Barry Schoub spoke to the Association on Sunday 19th December 2021 on the subject of “The omicron variant – a South African perspective”

Watch a recording of the event here.

Barry David Schoub was born in Johannesburg and received his undergraduate MB BCh at University of the Witwatersrand, followed by postgraduate degrees MMed, MD, and DSc; FRC Path; FC Path (SA), FRSSAf and MASSAf (Elected member of the Academy of Science of South Africa). In 1977 he held a United States Public Health Service international postdoctoral fellowship and was the first recipient of the James Gear International Postdoctoral Fellowship. He was a Fogarty fellow at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, USA, until the latter part of 1978 when he was appointed as Professor and Head of the Department of Virology of the University of the Witwatersrand (at the age of 33). In 1982 he became the Director of the National Institute for Virology. In January 2002 he was appointed as founding Executive Director of the newly established National Institute for Communicable Diseases, retiring in August 2010.

He has been a member of a number of international bodies and has served as an advisor for several WHO programmes including polio, measles, RSV and influenza. He was a member of the Advisory Committee for Poliomyelitis Eradication [ACPE] of the World Health Organization and of the Board of the International Association of Public Health Institutes (IANPHI). He served on the Task Force for Immunization for WHO (AFRO) and was a member of the interim board of the International Society of Influenza and Respiratory Viruses.

He served as South Africa’s delegate to the International Union of Microbiological Societies, and was the founding Chairman of the National Advisory Group on Immunization of South Africa. He chaired the Scientific Advisory Panel and was vice-chairmen of the Board of Trustees of the Poliomyelitis Research Foundation. He served on the Scientific Advisory Committee of the South African AIDS Vaccine initiative, and was the International Scientific Advisory Committees of the 1990, 1996 and 1999 International Congresses of Virology and the 1996 and 1998 International AIDS Congresses. He has published over 290 scientific publications, 16 chapters in books and has written a book on HIV/AIDS, entitled “AIDS & HIV in Perspective”, published by Cambridge University Press now in its 2nd edition.

Amongst the awards he has received are the Paul Harris Fellowship Award of Rotary International; the Daubenton Prize of the University of the Witwatersrand – for the most outstanding Faculty Member of the year; the Order of Mapungubwe, the country’s highest honour, in recognition of invaluable contributions to medical science, virology and for services to the peoples of South Africa and internationally. He has life-time membership of the Federation of Infectious Diseases of Southern Africa in recognition of outstanding contribution to Virology, Public Health and Infectious diseases in South Africa and Internationally. In 2012 he received the Research Award of the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, also the African Society for Laboratory Medicine Lifetime Achievement Award in recogntion of exceptional contributions to laboratory science which has made a major impact on public health and laboratory medicine worldwide. In the Jewish community he received the Jewish Achievers Award in the category Science, Arts, Culture and Sports, the Jewish Achievers Humanitarian Award, and the Samson-Kaplan Community Service award. In 2021 he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Academy of Science of South Africa.

Speaker: Dr Mette Rodgers (Regional Medical Examiner for London)

Dr Mette Rodgers is a Consultant in Sexual Health and HIV at Croydon University Hospital. She is Associate Medical Director and Lead for Appraisal and Revalidation at Croydon. Since 2019 she has been the Regional Medical Examiner who leads the London team of “independent senior doctor(s) whose role is to enhance the governance and regulatory systems by scrutinising the deaths of patients not under review or inquest by the coroner”. Thus far medical examiners have operated within the framework of hospital trust(s) but they are beginning to be introduced more widely and in the community.

Watch a recording of the event here.