Cedars-Sinai Expands Medical and Research Ties With Israel Healthcare Partners

LOS ANGELES, May 22 : Reflecting its expanding international reach, Cedars-Sinai is building clinical, scientific and education partnerships with healthcare institutions in Israel. Now, during Jewish American Heritage Month, the organization is recognizing ongoing programs that foster innovation in patient care, physician training and scientific discovery.

“Cedars-Sinai is proud of its rich Jewish heritage and its ongoing collaborations with medical centers in Israel,” said Cedars-Sinai President and CEO Peter L. Slavin, MD. “It is part of our overall commitment to the Jewish value of Tikkun Olam, healing the world through our actions.”

One of Cedars-Sinai’s longest and most productive collaborations has been with Sheba Medical Center outside Tel Aviv. The relationship began as a collaboration aimed at advancing cardiovascular medicine and the field of minimally invasive heart interventions.

Cedars-Sinai is now working with Sheba’s ARC Center for Digital Innovation to advancedigital health technologies and AI-driven solutions for healthcare challenges. The two institutions also have established a program to enhance the perioperative care of patients with inflammatory bowel disease through tailored dietary, mental health and physical therapy interventions.

Investigators from the two institutions are studying stem cells at the International Space Station to determine how microgravity affects the biology of cells or may enhance manufacturing of stem cells in space.

Cedars-Sinai staff members are engaged in other projects throughout Israel. Among other efforts, teams are:

• Implementing the Sheba inflammatory bowel disease program at Emek Medical Center in northern Israel and at Assuta Ashdod Medical Center in the southern part of the country.
• Working on joint fellowship training programs in oncology, gynecology and endocrinology with Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv, where Cedars-Sinai also is engaged in joint data science and AI research programs as well as educational conferences for regenerative medicine, computational sciences and other specialties.
• Collaborating on several joint projects with scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science in central Israel, including one that employs CAR T cells to treat solid cancers.
• Teaching, mentoring and performing complex surgeries. Hand surgeon David Kulber, MD, partnered with colleagues at Sheba Medical Center earlier this year to perform surgery on injured soldiers, using biologic joint reconstruction techniques he pioneered at Cedars-Sinai.

“We have a deep bench of projects with our partners in Israel,” said Shlomo Melmed, MB, ChB, executive vice president of Academic Affairs and dean of the Medical Faculty at Cedars-Sinai.

A delegation of Cedars-Sinai physicians and leaders last year visited several peripheral Israeli hospitals in the cities of Ashkelon, Nahariya and Safed. The group discussed opportunities to pursue educational and training collaborations and knowledge exchanges. The visitors also learned about the hospitals’ triage systems for major incidents.

Harry Sax, MD, vice chair of the Jim and Eleanor Randall Department of Surgery and the associate dean of Cedars-Sinai’s International Academic Programs, said the “first-hand experience will help better prepare teams back in Los Angeles for responding to unexpected events."