Ilora Finlay is a Professor of Palliative Medicine and has worked with Marie Curie Cancer Care since 1987. She was Vice Dean in the School of Medicine, Cardiff University between August 2000 and October 2005. She has recently taken up the position of President at the Royal Society of Medicine.

Prof Finlay was a member of the Expert Advisory Committee on Cancers to the Chief Medical Officers of England and Wales, producing the ‘Calman Hine’ report in 1995.

Since her elevation to a Peerage in 2001, she has been actively involved in debates on health issues, particularly relating to Health and Tobacco. She is a Member of the Select Committees on Science and Technology, and recently on the Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill.

She is President of the Association of Chartered Physiotherapists, MS Cymru and Patron of Shalom Hospice, Wales. She was Welsh Woman of the Year 1996-97 and has held Visiting Professorships at Gröningen University (Johanna Bijtel Chair), and University of Melbourne.

She has published and lectured widely on palliative care, and researched into aspects of cancer palliative care. She established the internationally renowned Certificate Diploma/MSc distance learning courses in palliative care at Cardiff University, from which over 900 senior clinicians worldwide have graduated.

Prof Rivka Carmi is the first woman elected to the Presidency of an Israeli University. She is President of Ben Gurion Universityof the Negev in Beersheva. Previously she was the first woman Dean of an Israeli Faculty of Health Sciences. She is a world-renowned researcher in the field of Paediatric Genetics. The Carmi Syndrome was named after her.

A. Mark Clarfield MD FRCPC

Author of the BMJ blog about how life in Beersheva, at the medical school and hospital, has been affected by the recent conflict and sspoke to the Jewish Medical Association (UK) about his experiences.

Marc Clarfield graduated MD from the University of Toronto in 1975, and specialised first in Family Medicine, then Community Medicine and Public Health and finally in Geriatrics. Together with his wife, Prof Ora Paltiel, also a physician (haematology and clinical epidemiology), he moved to Montreal in 1978 where he was with the Faculty of Medicine at McGill University until 1992. He was Chief of Geriatrics at the Sir Mortimer B. Davis – Jewish General Hospital and head of the McGill University Division of Geriatric Medicine. He was Assistant Dean of Students from 1989-92, was promoted to a full Professorship, and has adjunct status at McGill University.

In 1992 Clarfield moved to Israel. He worked first at the Sarah Herzog Hospital, and from 1994-2001 he was Head of the Division of Geriatrics at the Ministry of Health in Jerusalem. Since 2202 he has been head of Geriatrics at the Soroka Hospital, a 1,100 bed acute care institution, and is the Sidonie Hecht Professor of Geriatrics at Ben-Gurion University in Beer-sheva.

Prof Clarfield’s research interests include Alzheimer disease and the related dementias, the organization of health care services, medical history and ethics. In addition to his scientific work, he has published medical humour, book reviews and miscellaneous pieces in various newspapers.

Press Review:

The Jewish Medical Association UK held a well-received lecture at University College London yesterday evening. The large audience included many senior members of the medical profession in London, and was attended by Board President, Henry Grunwald, QC

The lecture, entitled “A Doctor in the South” was given by Professor Mark Clarfield, Head of Geriatrics at Soroka Hospital, Beer Sheva, who spoke about his own, and the Hospital’s, experiences during the Gaza conflict.

Prof Clarfield told his audience about the work of the hospital in treating people in need of treatment, whatever their religious or ethnic background, and outlined the steps taken by the hospital to prepare for dealing with casualties of the Gaza operation, as well as the necessary precautions to protect their patients and staff during what turned out to an aerial missile bombardment of Beer Sheva.

“We functioned effectively under missile fire”, was the remarkable message that he delivered. Professor David Katz, Chairman of JMA (UK) and Vice-Chairman of the Board’s Defence and Group Relations Division thanked Prof Clarfield, saying that “This has been an opportunity to hear first-hand about the reality of medicine in Israel in the difficult times that Southern Israel in particular has been through.”

Director of Western Galilee Hospital, Nahariyah

Talk about his experiences as director of a 650 bed general hospital, and as the first Israeli Arab to hold such a position

Dr. Barhoum was born in Haifa in 1960, graduated from the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion Institute of Technology, Haifa, did his residency in Family Medicine and received a Master’s Degree in Public Health Administration from Haifa University.

Following eight years as the director of the Holy Family (Italian) Hospital in Nazareth, Dr. Barhoum took up his appointment as Director General of Western Galilee Hospital, Nahariya in 2007. He has already expanded the hospital’s existing research, within the framework of a “biotechnology incubator” for research and development. This will lead the way to the Hospital becoming a university medical centre and a full-service hospital for the Galilee; and he believes that this will in turn promote the overall development of the Galilee area, drawing in scientific talent and enriching it. His aim is to promote environmentally friendly practices, and to adapt the hospital to work within a framework of resource conservation.

Dr Barhoum is married to Dr. Marie Barhoum, a paediatric endocrinologist at the Emek Medical Center in Afula. They have three daughters, aged 20, 16 and 10.

Dr David Chinitz

Braun School of Public Health, Hebrew University Jerusalem

Thursday 22nd September at 20:00

Pearson Lecture Theatre, UCL ,Gower St, London WC1E 6BT

David Chinitz received his PhD in Public Policy Analysis from the University of Pennsylvania in 1981 and moved to Israel from the US that same year. He served as Social Sciences Research Coordinator for Israeli Ministry of Health, Senior Staff Member on the State Judicial Commission of Inquiry into the Israeli Health System, Senior Researcher at the JDC/Brookdale Institute, and is currently Associate Professor of Health Policy and Management at the Hebrew University-Hadassah School of Public Health. He has served on the editorial boards of several international health policy journals and has published numerous articles, chapters and edited books on the field of health policy and management. He was Chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee of European Health Management Association and is currently President of International Society for Priority Setting in Health Care. Chinitz is an occasional contributor to the popular press in Israel and abroad on issues having to do with Israel’s geo-political and social challenges. He visited London to talk at two international meetings at the London School of Economics on health policy and funding.

In his talk to the Association Dr Chinitz told how he had become interested in health policy issues from a public policy background. He outlined the key differences between the Israeli and Uk systems, and compared the “NICE” approach used in the UK with the Israeli “basket of treatment”. The differences between the two were a reflection of cultural differences in the first instance, but he belived that as they have developed with time the Israeli approach has provided greater transparency about treatment choice.

The Centennial Year of the Israeli Medical Association (IMA) was opened by a symposium and exhibition held at the European Union headquarters in Brussels. The events were initiated by the Belgian Jewish Doctors’ Group, led by Dr Willy Lipshutz. Mr Nuno Wahnon – Martens, from Bnai Brit International, and Mrs Elizabeth Harris-Sawczenko from the Board of Deputies of British Jews, gave invaluable assistance.

This symposium was introduced and chaired by Dr Zeev Feldman, who is the member of the IMA Executive responsible for international affairs and chair of the World Fellowship. Dr Arnon Afek spoke about the Israeli Health Care system and how it addresses disparities and inequalities in health; Dr Nurit Nirel described Israel’s remarkable experience in the integration of immigrant doctors; Dr Avi Abargel described Israeli humanitarian aid in Haiti and Thailand; and Drs Maayan, Moses and Rein described the Hadassah training programmes in Africa. Prof David Katz (UK) and Dr Henri Goldstein (Denmark) spoke about the role of the Jewish physician in Europe and their linkages to Israel medicine.

The symposium was followed by a reception to open a poster exhibition in the main foyer of the building, which was on display from 7th to 11th November. This included the “Jews in Medicine” series prepared by Dr Simon Cohen (UK) and posters were from Beit Issie Shapiro; Center for Health Policy Research in the Negev, Ben Gurion University, Israel; B’nai B’rith; Israaid; Israeli Medical Association; Ruth & Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Israel Institute of Technology, Israel; and Western Galilee Hospital, Nahariya, Israel.

The events were sponsored by MEP Emil Stoyanov (Bulgaria), MEP Charles Tannock (United Kingdom), MEP Miroslav Mikolasik (Slovakia), MEP Hannu Takkula (Finland), and MEP Michail Tremopoulos (Greece) and David Saranga (Head of the European Parliament Liaison Department, Mission of Israel to the European Union). Both MEP Tannock and MEP Mikolasik gave warm addresses of welcome at the opening

The IMA posters can be found here.

Norman Lebrecht, the prolific cultural commentator and award-winning novelist, has recently published “Why Mahler?”, a new interpretation of the most influential composer of modern times.

On 25th January 2011 he gave a remarkable talk to the Association, illustrated by excerpts from Mahler’s music, about the influence of medicine and illness had on the composer. He showed that Mahler had been deeply distressed by the high infant morbidity and mortality in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and particularly by the death of his beloved younger brother from rheumatic fever. While in Vienna he had bled severely from haemorrhoids. His elder daughter died from diphtheria, which devastated him. Finally he himself developed subacute bacterial endocarditis, diagnosed by the famous New York physician Emmanuel Libman, and returned to Vienna to die.

Before the talk Warren Backman (UCL medical student) gave an account of his elective bursary experience in Israel at Save a Child’s Heart, based at the Wolfson Hospital in Holon. In his vote of thanks Dr Nick Naftalin referred to the fact that some of the childhood problem that disturbed Mahler were still prevalent in the third world, as illustrated by cases which Warren had illustrated in his talk. He expressed the thanks of the meeting to Lebrecht for his educative as well enjoyable presentation.

The fourth Copenhagen conference on Medicine, Ethics and Jewish Law took place in Copenhagen from 8th – 10th January 2011. The organiser, Dr Henri Goldstein, a Danish gynaecologist, had once again put together an excellent programme. British participants included Prof David Katz, Dr Simon Cohen, Dr Ian Ellis and Dr John Allen; Dr Kenneth Collins and Dr Ian Cohen were British participants who are now Israel – based.

Dr Simon Cohen’s poster display, relating to Jewish and Israeli medical history, attracted considerable interest. Another historical aspect was a moving talk about the role of Danish physicians in the rescue of the Jews during World War II, given by Dr Dan Katznelson, who was himself rescued as a two year old.

Participants were hosted by members of the Copenhagen community over shabat, and the conference was opened by Dr Fred Rosner, who is perhaps best known for his work on Maimonides. His topic was “Medicine in a time of war”.

Several of the Israeli participants, all of who were physicians with parallel expertise in Jewish law, gave two talks. Rabbi Prof Steinberg spoke about designer babies and the new genetics, and about transplantation and organ donation. Prof Glick spoke about religion and public policy in Israel, using autopsies to illustrate the issues that have arisen over the past 60 years; and about the how “truth telling” had entered medical practice but that was often interpreted in a simplistic fashion. Dr Beni Gesundheit demonstrated his online educational programme about Jewish medical ethics, and gave an overview of Jewish attitudes to animal experimentation. Rabbi Prof Mordechai Halperin spoke on surrogacy and on abortion. Dr Deena Zimmerman spoke on hormonal therapy for observant Jewish and on the Jewish patient experience. Dr Cohen spoke about ethical dilemmas in his paediatric haemato-oncology practice and about Gaucher’s Disease.

One of the new features of this meeting was a panel discussion led by former Chief Rabbi Melchior, during which there was a lively debate about interfaith aspects of medicine. Participants included Rabbi Lexner, and a representative of the Danish Catholic, Lutheran and Muslim communities.

During the meeting there was an opportunity for Jewish physicians from Europe to talk about issues of mutual interest. The meeting heard from Dr Zeev Feldman, who is head of liaison between the Israel Medical Association (IMA) and Jewish physicians around the world, about efforts to increase visits to Israel by both medical students and young physicians. He told us that the 100th anniversary meeting will take place in April / May 2012.

Proceedings of the meeting will be published and will be available shortly from the Danish Jewish Community.

[Chairman: Prof Daniel Hochhauser]

Both in UK and Israeli medicine an important problem is: how do we translate advances in biomedical sciences into practical clinical applications? Four Israeli biomedical experts, all of whom have achieved this translation step, visited the UK in early March as part of an annual series on “Science for A level students”, and took part in a panel discussion on 2nd March 2011. Prof Yechezkel Barenholz (Hebrew University–Hadassah Medical School) explained how he had developed liposome-based carriers for drugs that are used in the treatment of cancer. Prof Smadar Cohen (Ben-Gurion University) discussed her work using products of algae to form a matrix for use in tissue engineering project. Dr Shoshana Merhav described how Teva is involved in the development of new technologies for bone marrow reconstitution and vision repair. Finally, Prof Michel Revel (formerly of the Weizmann Institute) told the story of the development of recombinant interferon, which is one of the great successes of biomedicine. Today two out of the three companies which made the drug, widely used in multiple sclerosis, are Israel based. One of the problems is that early interferon treatment, which probably prevents progression of the disease, is costly and difficult to fund. He also explained ongoing work in his new venture, making nerve sheath synthesizing cells from embryonic stem cells.

A reception for 16 visiting Israeli colorectal surgeons was held on 16th February 2011.

The visitors were from a wide range of Israeli hospitals, and were hosted by Dr Richard Cohen (UCLH), with help from Dr Andrew Williams (St Thomas’s Hospital and Dr. Joseph Nunoo-Mensa (King’s College Hospital)

Financial support was from the Kennedy – Leigh Charitable Trust.

Dr Barak Benjamin (Meir Hospital, Kfar Saba)

Dr Yuri Berlin (HaEmek Hospital, Afula)

Dr Ruth Gold-Deutsch (Assaf Harofe Hospital, Zerifin)

Dr Ron Greenberg (Ichilov-Sourasky Hospital, Tel Aviv)

Dr Roe Inbar (Ichilov-Sourasky Hospital, Tel Aviv)

Dr Eran Itzkovitch (Ichilov-Sourasky Hospital, Tel Aviv)

Dr Igor Lerner (Hasharon Hospital, Petah Tikva)

Dr Kamal Khateeb (Carmel Hospital, Haifa)

Dr Boris Kirshtein (Soroka Hospital, Beer Sheva)

Dr Hagar Mizrahi (HaEmek Hospital, Afula)

Dr Alejandro Murninkas (Hasharon Hospital, Petah Tikva)

Dr Anton Osyntsov (Soroka Hospital, Beer Sheva)

Dr Ada Rosin (Wolfson Hospital, Holon)

Dr Moris Venturero (Sheba / Tel Hashomer Hospital, Ramat Gan)

Dr Reuven Weil (Hasharon Hospital, Petah Tikva)

Dr Marius Weinberg (Rabin / Beilinson Hospital, Petah Tikva)

After the reception there was a discussion meeting about surgical training in the two countries. Professor Irving Taylor spoke and chaired this discussion, and Drs Alex Deutsch and Mark Ornstein took part.

Several of the London surgeon supervisors and sponsors of the visit were present.

The scheme and implementation were due primarily to the efforts of Dr Alex Deutsch, a former UK surgeon who has worked for many years in Israel.

Many letters of thanks have been received from the visiting group.