Evaluation of reporting trends in the MAUDE Database: 1991 to 2022.

Unlabelled: Adverse event reporting for medical devices is critical for risk mitigation. The Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Manufacturer and User Facility Device Experience (MAUDE) database serves as a key tool for post-market surveillance, receiving reports from various sources. Ensuring information integrity, especially across diverse reporting sources, is paramount.

Understanding Variation Among Medical Device Reporting Sources: A Study of the MAUDE Database.

Background: Increasing medical device usage raises concerns regarding unexpected, potentially life-threatening events that pose public health risks. Such events are reported to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and cataloged in the Manufacturer and User Facility Device Experience (MAUDE) database, a vital tool for post market surveillance that requires information of high quality and integrity, particularly concerning reporting sources.

Purpose: To analyze reporting behavior among different reporters, including manufacturers, distributors, and user facilities, by examining differences in reported factors, namely: (1) device types, (2) product problem attribution, and (3) selection of Device Problem Codes (DPCs) associated with the root causes of events.

Peer-to-Peer Human Milk-Sharing Among Israeli Milk Donors: A Mixed-Methods Study in the Land of Milk and Honey.

Background: Evidence is lacking on the phenomenon of peer-to-peer human milk-sharing in the Middle East, specifically, in Israel.

Research Aims: This study aimed to uncover peer-to-peer human milk-sharing in Israel, learn about how and whether donors engage in safe milk handling and storage practices, and assess knowledge about human milk and breastfeeding among this milk-sharing population. We also aimed to investigate donors' selectiveness in their decisions about to whom they donate their milk and their perceptions about the sale and purchase of human milk.

Attitudes of psychiatrists toward telepsychiatry: A policy Delphi study.

Objectives: To delineate areas of consensus and disagreements among practicing psychiatrists from various levels of clinical experience, hierarchy and organizations, and to test their ability to converge toward agreement, which will enable better integration of telepsychiatry into mental health services.

Methods: To study attitudes of Israeli public health psychiatrists, we utilized a policy Delphi method, during the early stages of the COVID pandemic. In-depth interviews were conducted and analyzed, and a questionnaire was generated.

Trust in COVID-19 policy among public health professionals in Israel during the first wave of the pandemic: a cross-sectional study.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the important role of professionals in designing and communicating effective policies. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the level of trust in the COVID-19 national public health policy among public health professionals in Israel and its correlates during the first wave of the pandemic.

Methods: A purposive sampling of public health professionals in Israel, through professional and academic public health networks (N = 112).

The Attitudes and Perceptions of Israeli Psychiatrists Toward Telepsychiatry and Their Behavioral Intention to Use Telepsychiatry.

Background: Although telemedicine care has grown in recent years, telepsychiatry is growing at a slower pace than expected, because service providers often hamper the assimilation and expansion of telepsychiatry due their attitudes and perceptions. The unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) is a model that was developed to assess the factors influencing the assimilation of a new technology. We used the UTAUT model to examine the associations between the attitudes and perceptions of psychiatrists in Israel toward telepsychiatry and their intention to use it.

Mother-level random effect in the association between PM and fetal growth: A population-based pregnancy cohort.

Background: A growing body of literature reports associations between exposure to particulate matter with diameter ≤2.5 μm (PM) during pregnancy and birth outcomes. However, findings are inconsistent across studies.

Barriers and Enablers for Integrating Public Health Cobenefits in Urban Climate Policy.

Urban climate policy offers a significant opportunity to promote improved public health. The evidence around climate and health cobenefits is growing but has yet to translate into widespread integrated policies. This article presents two systematic reviews: first, looking at quantified cobenefits of urban climate policies, where transportation, land use, and buildings emerge as the most studied sectors; and second, looking at review papers exploring the barriers and enablers for integrating these health cobenefits into urban policies.

Attitudinal Barriers Hindering Adoption of Telepsychiatry among Mental Healthcare Professionals: Israel as a Case-Study.

Despite proven advantages for the use of telemedicine in psychiatry, mental healthcare professionals have shown deep-seated mistrust and suspicion of telepsychiatry, which hinders its widespread application. The current study examines the attitudes of Israeli mental health professionals towards telepsychiatry and seeks to uncover the effects of experience and organizational affiliation on its adoption. The methodology included qualitative and thematic analysis of 27 in-depth interviews with Israeli mental health professionals, focusing on three major themes-clinical quality, economic efficiency, and the effects on the work-life balance of healthcare professionals.

Urban Climate Policy and Action through a Health Lens-An Untapped Opportunity.

Motivated by a growing recognition of the climate emergency, reflected in the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26), we outline untapped opportunities to improve health through ambitious climate actions in cities. Health is a primary reason for climate action yet is rarely integrated in urban climate plans as a policy goal. This is a missed opportunity to create sustainable alliances across sectors and groups, to engage a broad set of stakeholders, and to develop structural health promotion.

Lessons of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict for Public Health: The Case of the COVID-19 Vaccination Gap.

In early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic revealed a faceless, non-adversarial threat that endangered Israelis and Palestinians with the same ferocity. However, the capacities of the health systems to address it were not equal, with Israel more equipped for the outbreak with infrastructure, resources, manpower and later, vaccines. The pandemic demonstrated the life-saving benefits of cooperation and the self-defeating harms brought by non-cooperation.

Hazardous chemicals in outdoor and indoor surfaces: artificial turf and laminate flooring.

Background: Synthetic materials, increasingly used for indoor and outdoor surfaces including homes and playgrounds, may contain toxic chemicals. Infants have a higher potential of exposure to chemicals in these materials, which may pose a risk to their health.

Objective: To understand potential risks related to outdoor surface coverings, based on a review of the literature and regulations, and to assess levels of hazardous chemicals in surface coverings in Israel.

The influence of new information that contradicts common knowledge about earthquake preparedness in Israel: A mixed methods experiment study.

Background: A major earthquake in Israel is inevitable. Individual risk perceptions and preparedness can mitigate harm and save lives. The gap between the public's concerns and those of experts is reflected in their differential perceptions regarding the components that influence the occurrence of an earthquake in Israel.

Lead in children's jewelry: the impact of regulation.

Background: In 2016 we identified a regulatory gap in Israel reflecting a lack of restrictions on lead in children's jewelry. We conducted surveys that found high levels of lead in children's jewelry. Following the findings, a new standard restricting lead content was introduced in 2018.

Regional lessons from the COVID-19 outbreak in the Middle East: From infectious diseases to climate change adaptation.

Global health threats including epidemics and climate change, know no political borders and require regional collaboration if they are to be dealt with effectively. This paper starts with a review of the COVID-19 outbreak in Israel, Palestine and Jordan, in the context of the regional health systems, demography and politics. We suggest that Israel and Palestine function as one epidemiological unit, due to extensive border crossing of inhabitants and tourists, resulting in cross-border infections and potential for outbreaks' transmission.

Protecting health in dry cities: considerations for policy makers.

Increasing health and wellbeing in cities that experience water scarcity presents challenges, but can be done, say

The relationship between cyclonic weather regimes and seasonal influenza over the Eastern Mediterranean.

The prediction of the occurrence of infectious diseases is of crucial importance for public health, as clearly seen in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Here, we analyze the relationship between the occurrence of a winter low-pressure weather regime - Cyprus Lows - and the seasonal Influenza in the Eastern Mediterranean. We find that the weekly occurrence of Cyprus Lows is significantly correlated with clinical seasonal Influenza in Israel in recent years (R = 0.

High ambient temperature in summer and risk of stroke or transient ischemic attack: A national study in Israel.

Objective: To examine whether high ambient temperature and diurnal temperature range during the summer are associated with risk of stroke/transient ischemic attack (TIA).

Methods: A time-stratified case-crossover study design was conducted. The study sample comprised all individuals aged ≥50 years who had a stroke/TIA reported to the Israeli National Stroke Registry between 2014 and 2016 during the summer season.

Impacts of climate change on the public health of the Mediterranean Basin population - Current situation, projections, preparedness and adaptation.

The Mediterranean Basin is undergoing a warming trend with longer and warmer summers, an increase in the frequency and the severity of heat waves, changes in precipitation patterns and a reduction in rainfall amounts. In this unique populated region, which is characterized by significant gaps in the socio-economic levels particularly between the North (Europe) and South (Africa), parallel with population growth and migration, increased water demand and forest fires risk - the vulnerability of the Mediterranean population to human health risks increases significantly. Indeed, climatic changes impact the health of the Mediterranean population directly through extreme heat, drought or storms, or indirectly by changes in water availability, food provision and quality, air pollution and other stressors.

Adaptation of health systems to climate-related migration in Sub-Saharan Africa: Closing the gap.

Health systems worldwide need to be adapted to cope with growing numbers of migrants and to climate-exacerbated morbidity. Heatwaves, water stress, desertification, flooding, and sea level rise are environmental stressors that increase morbidity, mortality, and poor mental health in Sub-Saharan Africa. While most migration is intra-African, climate change is also affecting migration patterns outside the continent.

Rhetorical and regulatory boundary-work: The case of medical cannabis policy-making in Israel.

Recent studies have explored how professionals draw boundaries to reach workable solutions in conflictual and contested areas. Yet they neglected to explore the relationships and dynamics between how boundaries are demarcated in rhetoric and in policy. This article examines these relationships empirically through the case of medical cannabis (MC) policy-making in Israel.

Lead in spray paint and painted surfaces in playgrounds and public areas in Israel: Results of a pilot study.

Exposure to low levels of lead in children can cause cognitive deficits (reduced IQ) and behavioral changes such as reduced attention span and increased antisocial behavior. There are no mandatory limits on lead in paint in Israel, with the exception of paints used on toys and children's furniture. However, paints in playgrounds and public areas may be a source of exposure to lead in young children.

Environmental exposures and fetal growth: the Haifa pregnancy cohort study.

Background: The developing fetus is susceptible to environmental insults. Studying the effects of environmental exposures on fetal growth is essential for understanding the causal pathway between prenatal exposures and pregnancy outcomes. Here we describe the Haifa Pregnancy Cohort Study (HPCS) and discuss challenges and opportunities in applying "big data" paradigm.