The Sheba Medical Center launched a new branch of its ARC Innovation Center at a ceremony in the Arab city of Kfar Qasem last Tuesday.

As the largest medical center in Israel, Sheba plans to accelerate developments in modern medicine at its new branch and present new opportunities to entrepreneurs, by working with medical staff to detect clinical needs and introduce new medical technologies to address those problems.

The ARC center (accelerate, redesign, collaborate) has already worked with 20 leading medical centers around the world and has partnered with dozens of start-ups — raising over $1 billion.

Newsweek recently ranked Sheba Medical Center as one of the best hospitals in the world, placing it at No. 13 for its ability to leverage smart technologies to manage and improve care.

“Sheba is proud to serve as a model of coexistence and hope by making the best medicine accessible and available to anyone,” said Prof. Eyal Zimlichman, founder and director of ARC and Sheba’s chief medical and innovation officer.

The entire ceremony was held under the banner “Together we will change the Future of Healthcare.” With the opening of the center in Kfar Qasem, it is hoped by the implementors that it will present more opportunities to Israel’s Arab population to help shape the research and development of modern medicine.

This news originally appeared in The Jerusalem Post.

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On Dec. 13, 2018, Netanel Felber was serving in an Israel Defense Forces’ combat unit in the Binyamin region, north of Jerusalem, when he was shot in the head by a Palestinian terrorist as he and two comrades guarded a bus stop at the Givat Assaf junction. Two other soldiers—Sgts. Yosef Cohen, 19, and Yuval Mor Yosef, 20—were killed on the spot, and civilian Shira Sabag from Beit El was critically wounded. Netanel was rushed to Hadassah Hospital, and after several months of treatment in the ICU, was transferred to Sheba Medical Center for intensive rehabilitation while still in a minimally conscious state, where against all odds, he began to recover.

“Usually with brain injuries, significant gains and recoveries are seen within the first six to 12 months,” says Dr. Adi Gidali, a New York-trained physical therapy supervisor at the Outpatient Brain Injury Unit at Sheba Medical Center. “With severe traumatic brain injuries, like car accidents or war injuries, as in Netanel’s case, we continue to see significant improvements more than 24 months after the injury. The keys are patience, hard work, motivation, and focusing on short and long-term functional goals.”

As a medical journal editor who made aliyah from Silver Spring, Md., to Ra’anana 15 years ago with her husband, three children (and dog), Felber was no stranger to medical issues. But until that fateful day, she never imagined that she would become so immersed in the subject of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). Now she advocates for her son to ensure that he gets the best help and therapy available.

Judi Felber with her son, Netanel. Credit: Sheba Medical Center.

“Netanel’s job now is rehabilitation,” says his mother. “He is learning how to do the simplest tasks, like making a vocal sound and swallowing independently. Who knew that swallowing, which a newborn baby does instinctively, could be so complicated?”

While Netanel seems to understand everything, it’s still hard for him to express himself. Nevertheless, there are nuggets of interactions. For example, he was recently visited by a friend he hadn’t seen since before the coronavirus pandemic. When the friend took off his mask, Netanel smiled and held out his hand in greeting.

He and the other patients in Sheba’s Brain Injury Rehab Unit have an integrated multi-disciplinary team of dedicated professionals working with them, including rehab doctors, nurses, occupational therapists, physical therapists, psychologists and social workers.

“We also work very closely with the patient’s family,” says Gidali. “Our responsibility is to transfer information to the family, and it’s constantly a two-way street to get feedback. We train the family and the caregivers in the exercises necessary to get the patient to the next level. The work we do is intensely physical as well. In order to advance motor and cognitive skills of brain-trauma patients, we must understand the needs of each individual patient. Knowing that everyone is on the same page gives patients the best opportunity to improve.”

‘Attention away from the pain and difficulty of the exercise’

Another program at Sheba Medical Center that promotes motor function in an effective way is the introduction of a physiotherapy dog named Sheba. Netanel started with just petting Sheba and getting sensory input from his fur. Now he can do so much more.

A game of fetch requires Netanel to flex his elbow repeatedly and release the ball at the right moment. As part of a playful environment, the same skill is learned and practiced without the tedious intensity of standard physio exercises. Brushing Sheba’s fur is another beneficial exercise, which requires Netanel to exert just the right amount of pressure—enough to get through the fur, but not too much to hurt the dog.

Netanel Felber with Dr. Adi Gidali and Sheba, a physiotherapy dog. Credit: Sheba Medical Center.

“The dog relates to Netanel in a non-judgmental way, happily accepting the food and attention that Netanel offers,” says Felber. “We used to have a dog, which Netanel loved, and I think that interacting with Sheba is very healing for him. Also being with the dog is fun for Netanel, which is really important and a big reason why it’s effective.”

Professor Israel Dudkiewicz, head of the Orthopedic Rehabilitation program at Sheba, is encouraged by Netanel’s positive response to Sheba. “We have seen a dramatic improvement in patients performing physical therapy with dogs from both a physical and emotional perspective,” he said.

“The dog takes attention away from the pain and difficulty of the exercise, enabling the patient to try to do more and to do it better,” he says. “I’ve watched other patients who ordinarily wouldn’t be able to stand for just two or three minutes, but when they pet the dog, they can stand for much longer without even realizing it.”

‘Try and find room for optimism’ 

Rehabilitation has many ups and downs, but through it all, Felber never loses her positivity.

“It’s an emotional roller coaster,” she says. “Neurorehabilitation is slower than anything else I’ve ever experienced. Netanel can’t walk, talk or eat independently yet; but I try to focus on the positive: He’s responding to people, to us, his family. We’ve still got a long way to go, but I’m hopeful. Some days are good, some are not, but we have met the most amazing medical professionals here at Sheba Medical Center during this challenging period.”

“My advice,” she adds, “is to always try and find room for optimism, to find something good even when it appears that it’s the hardest thing in the world to do. I’ve seen Netanel progress here at Sheba in ways I never could have imagined.”

“Netanel is a rock star!” says Gidali. “He is so determined and works hard every day. We’ve been excited to see how wonderfully he has progressed. We look forward to—and expect to see and be part of—the incredible strides he will continue to make. Netanel is an inspiration to everyone who comes in contact with him.”

This article was originally posted by JNS

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A Sheba Medical Center nurse tends to patients in a rocket protected area of the facility.

Founded as Israel’s national hospital in 1948, Sheba Medical Center today is the largest medical center in the Middle East has been ranked one of the top ten hospitals in the world for three years in a row by Newsweek magazine. Sheba Medical Center plays a central role in Israel’s healthcare system – the Prime Minister put them in charge of Israel’s successful and much-admired Covid-19 effort.

Every year Sheba Medical Center’s 10,000 medical professionals deliver 11,000 babies, do 50,000 surgeries, treat over 50,000 cancer patients and touch almost 20% of Israelis.

In times of war and crisis, like the one Israel is enduring right now, Sheba’s role is even more central. Located in the middle of metro Tel Aviv, the Medical Center is very much in range of Hamas missiles. But there is no choice but to continue the work. A fortified underground parking garage at Sheba is equipped to be turned into a patient care area.

Founded as Israel’s national hospital in 1948, Sheba Medical Center today is the largest medical center in the Middle East has been ranked one of the top ten hospitals in the world for three years in a row by Newsweek magazine. Sheba Medical Center plays a central role in Israel’s healthcare system – the Prime Minister put them in charge of Israel’s successful and much-admired Covid-19 effort.

Every year Sheba Medical Center’s 10,000 medical professionals deliver 11,000 babies, do 50,000 surgeries, treat over 50,000 cancer patients and touch almost 20% of Israelis.

In times of war and crisis, like the one Israel is enduring right now, Sheba’s role is even more central. Located in the middle of metro Tel Aviv, the Medical Center is very much in range of Hamas missiles. But there is no choice but to continue the work. A fortified underground parking garage at Sheba is equipped to be turned into a patient care area.

When Coronavirus hit Israel, the Prime Minister put Sheba Medical Center in charge of the nation response, and the garage was turned into a Covid ICU. With Israel’s Corona success, the space was recently turned back into a garage. But only a few weeks later, it has tragically been turned into a neonatal care unit, pictured below.

In addition to its centrality in Israel, Sheba Medical Center also reaches outside Israel’s borders to offer healthcare and healing wherever it was needed. So many requests came in for Israeli and Sheba Medical Center expertise and help, that they formed Israel’s Center for Disaster Medicine and Humanitarian Response. And now the requests come in from all over the world.

When a recent military accident resulted in a massive and disastrous explosion in the country of Equatorial Guinea, Israel sent a relief mission of the IDF and staff from Sheba Medical Center. When there were eight Kurdish infants that needed urgent cardiac surgery, they were brought from Iraq to Israel so Sheba’s best pediatric cardiac-thoracic surgeon could operate on them.

In December 2020, Sheba’s Israel Center for Disaster Medicine and Humanitarian Response team, led by Prof. Elhanan Bar-On, sent nearly two dozen members of its battle-tested coronavirus medical team to combat a deadly second wave in the Piedmont region of Northern Italy. As the Coronavirus soared in Brazil, neighboring countries were hard-hit. Uruguay’s Ministry of Health made an urgent appeal to Israel and Sheba Medical Center sent a huge shipment of equipment followed by experts in logistics, treatment and pandemic mitigation.

Sheba Medical Center also plays a key role for the IDF. Every day over 40 IDF soldiers are treated at there and the Medical Center is one of the places where IDF doctors and other medical personnel do residencies and receive training. In fact, the current Director-General of the Medical Center, Dr. Itzik Kreiss, spent his career in the IDF Medical Corps, rising to be the IDF Surgeon General prior to coming to Sheba Medical Center.

The talented professionals at Sheba Medical Center are also medical innovators. In fact, they were creating so much medical technology innovation that they formed the ARC Innovation Center.

The ARC raises venture funds for MedTech innovation and incubates the companies, giving them both support and one of the best testing grounds in the world for their developments. In some cases the medical technology is homegrown at the Medical Center, in some cases they partner with others or bring companies inside. ARC’s ambitious goal is to reshape healthcare by 2030 and numerous new technologies have already emerged from it.

Through the ARC Innovation Center, Sheba Medical Center is a partner in a massive new medical campus planned in Chicago to bring health equity and improved healthcare outcomes to a chronically underserved area of that city, and then from there to other cities across the US.

The Covid-19 pandemic has reminded all of us how interconnected we are, the vulnerabilities we share, and the power we have when we stand together and reach out a helping hand. The Sheba Medical Center represents the best of that notion. When you feel a sense of pride on hearing about an Israeli humanitarian medical mission, odds are it was from Sheba Medical Center.

And today’s attacks from Gaza underline the urgency of having a state of the art medical facility that can operate without pause, even in war. And by supporting the Medical Center, you can become part of the solution. Click here and click “Donate”. And you too can help make your reach exceed your grasp and become part of the health and healing of all of humanity.

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At Sheba, the staff which consists of both Jewish and Arab doctors and nurses, came together for a special assembly to stress the importance of solidarity and cooperation in times of crisis.

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By ROSSELLA TERCATIN

Sheba Medical Center turned an underground parking lot that had previously served as a coronavirus ward into a bomb-shelter neonatal unit on Friday. Several dozen babies were moved there.

The hospital, located in Ramat Gan, a suburb of Tel Aviv, is one of the largest in the country and in the past few days has endured several rocket alerts.

The neonatal unit is the first to be transferred to a secured area, but a spokesperson for the center explained that they have the capability to move up to 600 beds underground.

As the pandemic raged, the hospital set up a corona unit in its parking lot for COVID patients who were critically ill. The unit had some 40 beds.

As the coronavirus numbers dramatically dropped, hospitals closed their special wards. The Sheba area returned to serve as a parking lot.

In southern and central Israel, several hospitals are relocating units that are in non-protected parts of their buildings to secured areas.

On Thursday, Kaplan Medical Center in Rehovot announced it reorganized its structure to move several wards treating patients unable to evacuate in the event of a rocket attack to secured areas.

Some 180 patients were relocated and some departments were merged.

“The safety of patients and hospital staff is our number one priority,” Director of Kaplan Medical Center Dr. Sarit Avishai-Eliner said. “From the beginning of Operation Guardians of the Walls, and as fire against our area increased, we have decided to relocate the departments situated on the upper floors.”

“We are following the developments, and we will continue to be prepared for any scenario and give the best medical care and response to our patients, despite the security threats,” she added.

See Article Here >>

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For the first time at Sheba Medical Center, a tricuspid valve correction procedure has been performed by catheterization and without requiring a surgical incision. The life-saving procedure was performed on a 53-year-old woman with documented hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, whose condition had deteriorated of late. The woman recently suffered from shortness of breath and fatigue and was diagnosed with tricuspid regurgitation, a condition in which the tricuspid valve of the heart, located between the right atrium and right ventricle, does not close completely when the right ventricle contracts. Thus, blood is allowed to flow back from the right ventricle to the right atrium, which increases the volume and pressure of the blood in both the right atrium and ventricle.

After examining the patient’s condition and weighing treatment options, her physicians at Sheba opted to employ Abbott’s innovative TriClip procedure, which enables repairing the tricuspid valve without the need for open-heart surgery. This is accomplished by clipping together a portion of the leaflets of the tricuspid valve to reduce the backflow of blood. The TriClip was inserted successfully by catheterization via the femoral vein near the upper thigh, and the patient returned to full function.

“We are rapidly progressing toward a time when most valvular pathologies will be treated by catheterization without requiring invasive, complex surgical interventions,” said Prof. Elad Maor, a senior Sheba cardiologist, who did the procedure using Abbott’s TriClip. According to Prof. Amit Segev, Director of the Cardiology Division at Sheba Medical Center: “Advanced technologies play an essential part in modern medicine. With our leading team of experts, we can provide patients with the best results. The procedure we just completed at Sheba for the first time brings us one step closer to a day when most valvular pathologies will be treated by a minimally invasive procedure.”

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As hospitals deal with the ever-increasing patient load associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, they also face a new reality – patients who need treatment while quarantined. These include pregnant women, whose fetuses require constant monitoring, and amongst whom severe COVID-19 cases are becoming more prevalent.

In response to this challenge, Sheba Medical Center has partnered with PulseNmore to provide pregnant women hospitalized due to COVID-19 with innovative miniature ultrasound machines that enable real-time interactive remote sessions. Furthermore, the device allows the recording of offline scans that can be reviewed later by medical staff. In this manner, Sheba Medical Center’s maternity ward staff can remotely monitor fetuses and provide better care to patients during the pandemic.

Every pregnant woman in Sheba’s COVID-19 wards will be given one of these devices, which will allow the medical staff to assess the health of fetuses by observing amniotic fluid volumes, cardiac activity, and more.

“The challenges of the pandemic have accelerated the need for remote patient care during pregnancy,” said the Director of Sheba’s Women’s Health Innovation Center, Dr. Avi Tsur. Elazar Sonnenschein, Founder and CEO of PulseNmore, added: “We are very pleased to support the Sheba’s efforts to remotely monitor pregnant women who suffer from COVID-19.”

The Women’s Health Innovation Center at Sheba Medical Center aims to provide women with cutting-edge medical solutions by making use of advances in artificial intelligence, virtual reality, precision medicine, and telemedicine.

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Only a handful of institutions around the world have performed the complex procedure on recovering COVID-19 patients with collapsed lungs.

For the first time in Israel, a double lung transplant has been completed successfully at Sheba Medical Center on a recovering COVID-19 patient with collapsed lungs. The 54-year-old patient contracted COVID-19 around two months ago, and was soon connected to an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation machine (ECMO) after his lungs collapsed as a result of the infection.

The procedure was performed while the patient was awake and connected to an ECMO machine, and a short time after its successful completion he was transferred to the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit for further observation.

This was the first time the complicated procedure was performed on a recovering COVID-19 patient suffering from severe pulmonary damage in Israel, and one of only a few similar procedures completed globally.

This latest procedure comes only a few days after another complex lung transplant was completed at Sheba Medical Center as part of the Lung Transplant Program headed by Prof. Ehud Raanani, Director of Sheba’s Leviev Cardiovascular and Thoracic Center, and Dr. Amir Onn, Head of Sheba’s Institute of Pulmonary Oncology.

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As the events of 2020 made clear, our lives and those of our loved ones may rest on the kind of health care we have access to. The 2,000 hospitals named in this list—which covers 25 countries, including United States, United Kingdom, Germany and Canada —stand out for their consistent excellence, including distinguished physicians, top-notch nursing care and state-of-the-art technology.

Of course we hope that we, and you, won’t need to seek care or visit a friend or family member in any hospital this year. But if you do, this ranking of the World’s Best Hospitals 2021 can help you feel confident as you make a critical choice about medical care.

— Nancy Cooper
Global Editor-in-Chief

See the Ranking Here >>

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