Dozens of doctors and scientists, including the directors of medical centers and health funds from across the country, participated in L’maanchem’s medical innovation conference last week in Tel Aviv.
The participants received a comprehensive overview of the latest technological developments in the field of health as well as the complex challenges facing the world of medicine.
The keynote speaker at the conference was Prof. Eugen B. Hug, a world-renowned expert and one of the developers of proton radiation innovative treatment. Praising Israel’s achievements in his field, he told the senior medical community, “You have scientists, physicists and accelerators that are joining us and helping us develop this method. You are a step away from treating patients.”
Hug came to the conference from Austria. He reviewed for the participants the unique characteristics of proton radiation, which significantly reduces the radiation to the patient’s normal organs and tissues and prevents injury. He explained that the innovative treatment does not focus on eliminating the cancerous tumor but on healing the patient, with the goal being to allow quality of life alongside cancer as a chronic disease.
Chairman of L’maanchem, Rabbi Yossi Erblich, recently received the Presidential Award of Volunteerism. President Isaac Herzog hailed Erblich as a “caring and sensitive leader, full of vision and accomplishment” whose organization is “a very important pillar to the health care system.”
L’maanchem’s president, Prof. Yosef Peres, former director of the Schneider Pediatric Center, noted the dedication of Erblich, who “while hareidi, is available 24/7 including on Shabbat to help anyone in need.”
Chairman of Friends of L’maanchem, businessman Beny Steinmetz, said that L’maanchem forms a bridge between the world of medical excellence and the world of patient support. The event was attended by Nobel Prize laureate Prof. Dan Shechtman, Shin Bet director Ronen Bar and director of the Sheba Tel Hashomer Medical Center, Prof. Yitshak Kreiss.
Gil Shwed, co-founder and CEO of Check Point, reviewed the cyber threats to medical institutions. He revealed that each organization in this sector suffers about 1,500 hacker attacks per week, and in the last two years the number has soared by an astonishing 70%.
Hospitals, he said, are particularly convenient targets for attacks by enemy states, terrorist organizations and criminal elements. “You don’t have to attack the most sophisticated systems,” Shwed commented. “In Britain, for example, they just like that obstructed the doors of emergency rooms – and that was enough.”
Erblich concluded the conference: “In the year 2040, artificial intelligence will be present in our lives in a very significant way. The medicine of the future seems very promising, optimistic, but not less than that – challenging. Medicine is taking huge steps forward, research is shaking the foundations, and technology is conquering every arena in the world of medicine. But nothing can replace the doctors’ heart and soul. And medicine, as advanced as it may be, is not viable without a heart and soul. This is why we founded L’maanchem several years ago. We wanted to be a home for patients and their families, and a home for doctors who give of themselves and fill the world with goodness.
