A Revolutionary Program to

Build Medical Leadership for Israel

Introduction

Why is Talpiot Needed?

Selection of Participants

Program

Philanthropic Opportunities

Talpiot Awardees: Profiles in Brilliance

Introduction

The Talpiot Medical Leadership Program at the Sheba Medical Center identifies, advances and prepares the brightest young physicians for leadership positions in medicine and healthcare in Israel; provides participants with lead scholarships, personal mentoring, and specially-tailored residency opportunities; and provides participants with a broad education in human relations, executive management strategies, leadership skills, and Jewish culture and philosophy. It already is effecting a revolution in medicine and healthcare in Israel.

Three classes of Sheba "Talpionnaires" have been selected since 2002, totaling 23 outstanding leaders for Israel's medical future. Sheba intends to inaugurate a new class of Talpionnaires every other year.

The Talpiot program turns outstanding young M.D./PhD. physicians into "renaissance" doctors and senior medical executives who can be agents of change -- both for Sheba and the entire Israeli medical system. The program provides Israel's leading young doctors-medical researchers with a broad education in human relations, executive management strategies and leadership skills, and Jewish culture and philosophy. It also provides participants with the ability to advance a specific, personal research or clinical project, under the guidance of a senior doctor or hospital executive.

Talpiot is modeled on the prestigious leadership development programs called by the same name made famous by the Israel Defense Forces, especially its intelligence branch. These military frameworks have successfully selected the most gifted young officers for rapid career advancement and placed them in the most challenging and knowledge-rich learning environments. Indeed, many leading figures in Israeli life are graduates of the military Talpiot program.

The Talpiot Medical Leadership Program at Sheba selects eight outstanding young M.D./PhD physicians each cycle for leadership development. These individuals are provided with a significant stipend over a five year period, which is to be applied to advancement of a central research or clinical initiative that each participant undertakes to advance his/her career.

Why is Talpiot Needed?

In today's dynamic, constantly-changing healthcare environment, only an institution that is constantly reforming and improving itself can truly be said to be offering its patients the best medical care possible.

Medical knowledge, medical procedures and treatment protocols, pharmacological advances, and medical technology all are advancing at unimaginable speeds. Medical professionals and administrators must learn to be open-minded and flexible, and to aspire to new visions and far-reaching goals.

To produce the innovative medical leader of tomorrow, Sheba critically needs to go beyond the professional and graduate schools and fashion a learning environment that pushes excellence and drives innovation.

Sheba needs doctors who demonstrate real leadership potential in their human capabilities, academic achievements, and clinical work; who are committed to making their career at Sheba; and who are capable of leading Sheba to new breakthroughs in the future. It is these individuals that Sheba seeks to nurture through its Talpiot program.

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Selection of Participants

Sheba advertises the program at all Israeli medical schools and among interns in the national internship program. Candidates are screened by three independent committees. Only 1 in 15 applicants are accepted into the program.

A committee of senior Sheba doctors and professors screen applicants through personal interviews. A committee also reviews in detail the central research or clinical project that the candidates propose to undertake in the framework of the program.

Sheba selects outstanding individuals from across Israel who meet the following criterion: young doctors and/or medical scientists from any institution in Israel, who are close to completing, or have completed their MA and Ph.D. degrees; or medical interns and specialists in their first years of interning at Sheba, or are within three years of having completed their specialist training; or M.D./Ph.D.s who are conducting medical or pharmaceutical research and/or clinical trials at Sheba

Participants are selected after rigorous review, and signed on a formal Talpiot contract. The contract specifies five years of training and a commitment to complete an additional five years of work as a senior physician or a researcher at Sheba.

Program

Each "Talpionnaire," as program participants are affectionately known, receives a significant scholarship over five years (in addition to his/her salary as a physician in the hospital).

Each Talpionnaire is accompanied throughout his work and research by a personal mentor, drawn from the most senior and outstanding ranks of Sheba faculty. The mentor is responsible for guiding the Talpionnaire in his work, as well as serving as an advocate within the Sheba system for new ideas advanced by the Talpionnaire.

Indeed, "new ideas" is a key concept of the program. Talpiot scholarship recipients are led to believe that they are on the fast track to leadership positions at Sheba, and are encouraged to boldly suggest new techniques and new methods of practicing medicine and administering healthcare in their respective fields.

The program also provides participants with a broad education in human relations, personal skills development, executive management strategies, Jewish culture, philosophy, art and more.

Though a series of bi-weekly and monthly meetings and field trips, participants also are exposed to a range of high-level lecturers and senior officials in medicine and healthcare, from Israel and abroad. Talpiot awardees have the opportunity to meet with and learn from the best minds.

The interaction between program participants -- as a group -- creates a synergy of its own. They learn from one another in a multidisciplinary environment.

The senior-most hospital administrators, including the hospital director himself, are intimately involved with the program, mentoring the participants and tracking their progress.

Philanthropic Opportunities

The Sheba Medical Center Sheba believes that this program makes a signal contribution to the development of Sheba and to the advancement of healthcare in Israel for the future. Sheba would like to launch a class of Talpiot awardees every other year, and to guarantee this program in perpetuity.

In order to ensure the program's continuation into its third class and beyond, Sheba seeks philanthropic funding amounting to $750,000 (U.S.) for each class of Talpiot awardees. This sum will allow promising young scientists and physicians at Sheba to expand their research horizons, invest in new equipment and materials, travel abroad to scientific conferences, and to advance new treatment plans and protocols.

An endowment of $10 million (U.S.) would allow the Sheba Medical Center to continue the Talpiot program in perpetuity, and to fund the program exclusively from the interest earned on the principle, while preserving the principle forever. The program would be renamed the "(Donor) Medical Leadership Program."

An endowment of $5 million (U.S.) would allow the Sheba Medical Center to continue the program for an extended cycle of 12 or 13 Talpiot classes across a substantial period of approximately 20 years, using both the principle and interest earned to fund the program. The program would be renamed the "(Donor) Medical Leadership Program" for all those years.

A donation of $750,000 (U.S.) would allow the Sheba Medical Center to run one, five-year session of the Talpiot program for ten Talpiot awardees. The program would be renamed the "(Donor) Medical Leadership Program" for this period.

Individual Talpiot scholarships can be supported at a cost of $75,000 per awardee. This type of donation can be dedicated to a specific field in medicine.

Talpiot Awardees: Profiles in Brilliance

The 23 young medical leaders selected thus far in the program (eight in each of the first two cycles, and seven in the third cycle) range the medical gamut from oncology to ophthalmology. Their advance is rapid; their achievements impressive. Below is a summary of the Sheba Talpiot awardees to-date, their fields of specialty and plans for the future.

Prof. Yehuda Adler,                                  Director Talpiot Medical Leadership Program