The Physician on a Board of Directors: Bane or Benefit?

With the accelerated development of innovative domains such as artificial intelligence, big data, and personalized healthcare, the continuing growth of health-tech and bio-tech industries is to be expected. Concurrently, the question of the extent and nature of physicians' involvement in these rapidly evolving industries arises, especially in management and leadership capacities such as directors or chief executive officers of such companies. Against this backdrop, the Israeli Medical Association recently launched a first-of-its-kind course designed to train senior physicians as directors in health-tech companies by providing them with vast relevant financial, legislative, and professional proficiencies.

Home Hospitalization Worldwide and in Israel.

Global trends, such as the population aging, the increase of chronic morbidity, soaring costs of healthcare services, and work overload in hospitals raise the need to find innovative solutions for providing quality medical services. One solution adopted by healthcare systems around the world is "home hospitalization," that is, providing an array of necessary health services in the patient's home, instead of in the hospital department. The aim of this focus article is to explore the spread of home hospitalization worldwide and examine the challenges and pathways for its adoption and implementation.

[HOW MANY PHYSICIANS ARE ACTIVELY PRACTICING MEDICINE IN ISRAEL? ON THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN VARIOUS METHODS OF MEASUREMENT].

In 2018, Israel replaced the workforce surveys of the Central Bureau of Statistics with administrative data files, as the source of its reports to the OECD on the number of physicians practicing medicine and their percentage of the population. In the wake of the change, the scope of the medical workforce reported by Israel dropped by approximately 9%-15% in each one of the years from 2012-2015. Furthermore, while according to the previous measurement approach, Israeli figures were consistently equal to or higher than the yearly OECD averages, according to the new method these figures are lower than the averages of other OECD members.

The Task Force for the Promotion of the Status of Women in Medicine in Israel.

In this article, we offer a brief summary of the report from the Task Force for the Promotion of the Status of Women in Medicine in Israel. The task force, formed by the Israel Medical Association in 2013, published a comprehensive report in May 2015 dedicated to the promotion of equal opportunities for female doctors in the Israeli healthcare system and in the academic world. The aim of this paper is to present the work of the task force and to highlight its main principles and recommendations against the backdrop of the gender revolution in the Israeli healthcare system and worldwide.

Participation of National Medical Associations in quality improvement activities - International comparison and the Israeli case.

Background: Many countries have devoted considerable efforts in an attempt to improve the performance of their health care systems. National Medical Associations (NMAs), along with other stakeholders, play a part in the promotion of such activities. The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature and level of participation of NMAs in activities of quality improvement in medicine, with a specific emphasis on Israel.

Regulatory tasks of national medical associations - international comparison and the Israeli case.

Background: In many countries, NMAs, along with other stakeholders, play a part in the regulation of physicians. The purpose of this paper is to compare and explain the level of involvement of NMAs in physician regulation in several developed countries, with a specific emphasis on Israel.

Methods: The authors conducted a review of the literature on physician regulation, focusing on licensing and registration, postgraduate training and physician disciplinary measures.

[Part-time residency training in Israel].

Full-time work has long been perceived as a cornerstone of medical residency, the consensus being that a resident must apply the bulk of his time and attention to his professional training. Demographic and cultural changes that have taken place over the last several years, specifically the rise in the number of female doctors and the importance of leisure time to the younger generation, have intensified the need to find new and innovative ways to deal with the plight of the resident population. One idea, already in effect in many Western countries, is the institution of part-time residency programs.

Prevention of thrombosis of central venous catheters.

All central venous catheters develop a fibrin sheath and clot formation which can cause pulmonary emboli, especially when the catheter is withdrawn. The degree of fibrin sheath and clot is dependent not on the length of residence in the vein but related more to the type of catheter material. A study was performed placing the more commonly used catheters in arteries and veins of canines for two weeks and then evaluating the volume of sheath and thrombus.

Distal tibial artery thrombectomy in acute limb ischemia.

During the past two years, in cases of infrapopliteal embolic occlusion not retrievable through the femoral approach, we have used distal tibial thrombectomy in preference to a direct approach via the popliteal artery. Distal tibial thrombectomy was done in seven extremities in six patients with excellent results. Only one extremity required subsequent amputation.

Evaluation of central venous catheter thrombogenicity.

Four studies were performed to evaluate the thrombogenicity of different central venous catheter materials. Two of these studies consisted of evaluating the amount of platelet deposition on different catheter materials, firstly in vitro and then in vivo using dogs. In these studies, 51-chromium was used to label the platelets.

Prevention of postoperative deep venous thrombosis and pulmonary emboli with combined modalities.

Worldwide statistics reveal that 25 to 40 per cent of patients who are over the age of 40 years and operated on for 1 or more hours will develop a deep venous thrombosis (DVT). The studies reviewed in this paper were performed to evaluate several modalities and compare their effectiveness in preventing DVT in postoperative patients. In the first study, five modalities plus a control group were evaluated in 562 patients from five surgical specialties.

Postoperative venous thrombosis. Evaluation of five methods of treatment.

Five methods for preventing deep venous thrombosis in postoperative patients were evaluated and compared with a control group. Five hundred patients from five surgical specialties were studied. The incidence of deep venous thrombosis was 37.