Public Health

Prof. Chava Peretz

Neuro-epidemiology and environmental epidemiology

Aiming to enhance knowledge on the elusive etiology and treatment of neuro-generative diseases, Prof Peretz studies the epidemiology of diseases of the brain. She does so with a multidisciplinary team, studying risk factors, markers (e.g. anemia), prognosis and pharmacoepidemiology of Parkinson's disease. She also applies Big Datadriven studies based on databases of Maccabi Healthcare Services. In the area of environmental epidemiology, environmental hazards and public health, she

Prof. Peretz, PhD, is at the Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine at the School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine. She obtained a BSc in mathematics and statistics from Tel Aviv University, a PhD degree from Utrecht University, the Netherlands in occupational and environmental epidemiology, and post-doctoral training at the University of Washington University, Seattle, USA. She is a consultant on matters regarding air pollution/climate and health to the Israeli Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Health. She is a member of the editorial boards of the Ecology and Environment and Neuroepidemiology. Peretz is a member of the International Society of Environmental Epidemiology (ISEE) uses advanced statistical modelling to study the spatio-temporal distribution of diseases or mortality, and the association with climate conditions and air pollution. The results are important for public health considerations and health system preparedness for temperature increases as a result of climate change and for the clean ambient air act. Most recently, to evaluate the global burden of the pandemic in Israel, Peretz has established COVID-19 related studies, accounting for climate conditions.

Prof. Leah Rosen

Prof. Rosen, PhD, is at the Department of Health Promotion at the School of Public Health, Faculty of medicine. She performed her B.Sc. at Rutgers University in mathematics, her M.Sc. At Harvard School of Public Health in biostatistics, and her Ph.D. at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Braun School of Public Health. Rosen initiated and teaches Israel’s only academic course on tobacco control and is on various national and international health advisory committees.

Tobacco reduction

Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death in the world today, with 8 million annual deaths, and a predicted 1 billion deaths in this century. About a million of the annual deaths are due to exposure to other people’s smoking Prof Rosen’s primary area of research is promoting public health through reduction in tobacco use and exposure. Topics include prevention of child exposure to tobacco smoke, smoking cessation and initiation, public attitudes regarding tobacco policy, and public understanding of the role of nicotine and harm reduction. At the intersection of evidence and policy, Rosen contributes to the science base for healthy public policy; her work has been quoted widely in the press, used in policy-making by health bodies and in the Knesset, and submitted to the Supreme Court. Most of Rosen’s original research is conducted in Israel, often with ramifications for those in other countries. Rosen’s proposal to include tobacco package inserts in all tobacco products, as a means of messaging smokers about risks and ways to quit smoking at very low cost to the government, was passed into law by the Knesset.