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INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Impact in Afula: The Dream Doctors (Courtesy of UJF) Emek Medical Center, located in Afula, is a large medical facility covering the North of Israel, and today employs six highly motivated and professional medical clowns. They serve both adult and pediatric patients by being active in Pediatric Oncology, Pediatric Internal Medicine departments, Pediatric Surgery, Pediatric Gastroenterology, Nuclear Medicine, Dialysis, Surgical Wards, Orthopedics, Ophthalmology, and the Emergency Rooms for both adults and children. Annually, thousands of people are exposed to their antics and empathic genius while facing fear and uncertainty. Somehow, these Dream Doctors can transform a frightful hospital environment into a fantasy world where patients and physicians play out unexpected roles – forgetting their personal dilemmas, pain, and fear for a short while. This respite is welcomed by patients, their families, and staff. The Dream Doctor saga has gone
Emek Medical Center Dream Doctors comfort a young patient.
Dream Doctors entertain patients.
from an experiment many years ago to a highly anticipated and necessary therapeutic service. How does one measure the value of a smile on the face of a sick or injured child?
FDA Okays Rapid Test to Tell Bacterial From Viral Infections
MeMed enables better informed antibiotic treatment decisions, an essential tool in the fight against the global threat of resistant bacteria.
BY ABIGAIL KLEIN LEICHMAN/ ISRAEL21C A groundbreaking point-of-care machine that determines whether an infection is viral or bacterial has received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for both children and adults. Last year, MeMed received CE clearance for sales of its testing platform in Europe. The MeMed BV test is an immune-based protein signature test that distinguishes, within 15 minutes, between a bacterial or viral infection from a blood sample. This critical information enables physicians to know immediately if an antibiotic is called for, and to avoid antibiotic overuse. “For those of us who care for acutely ill children, we have been waiting decades for accurate, rapid diagnostics to confidently guide the care of moderately ill children
without a clear focus of infection or recognizable viral illness,” said Harvard Medical School Prof. Dr. Rich Bachur, chief of emergency medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital. “This novel test offers promise to help differentiate those children with self-limited viral illness from those with possible bacterial infection, thereby supporting the judicious use of antibiotics,” Bachur said. FDA clearance was based on a multicenter blinded clinical validation study enrolling over 1,000 children and adults and addresses goals laid out in the US National Action Plan for Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria. Headquartered in Haifa, MeMed has established its American base in Boston and is ramping up commercial activities across the United States.
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