Israeli hospital combines high-tech, human touch

Dr. Zeev Rotstein ends the call on his ultra-thin cellphone, spins it around in his hand, places it on the table in front of him and smiles with satisfaction.

This represents the next frontier of medical evolution, he says, looking down at the device.

Beyond the capabilities already built into portable phones - games, text messaging, Internet browsing, music and what not - Rotstein says the cellphone is also being turned into a monitoring device that transmits medical information.

Employing technology developed in Israel and now in clinical trials in the United States, the Bluetooth-equipped phones are being used to transmit information that can save lives.

"With Bluetooth [short range wireless technology] you can capture medical signals from a patient. It can sense life-threatening signals," Rotstein said, referring to conditions such as heart arrhythmia, low blood glucose and other medical indicators. The information is obtained and transmitted to doctors and emergency services while also updating a patient's medical databank, he said.

The Chaim Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer, Israel's largest medical facility, is "the home of many Israeli medical technology developments," he said.

Rotstein is chief executive officer of Tel Hashomer, but this winter he's on sabbatical at Northwestern University in Chicago, where he's overseeing a "home telemonitoring project" that promises to add yet another function to cellphones. He was in Toronto recently to meet with supporters of the hospital.

A cardiologist who's been a hospital administrator for more than 10 years, Rotstein stresses that Tel Hashomer is also the archetypical people's hospital, serving a broad cross-section of Israelis - even some Palestinians.

With 2,000 beds, it is "a monster" on the outskirts of Tel Aviv, in the middle of Israel's population heartland. It is staffed by 6,000 employees, including 850 physicians and more than 2,000 nurses.

It provides all manner of medical services, from acute care to rehabilitation services, all the while serving as a teaching hospital associated with Tel Aviv University.

"We do the most complicated treatment and are a community-needs hospital," Rotstein said. Parents send their developmentally disabled and autistic children to the hospital for special programs, while elderly patients enjoy a variety of programs and many take advantage of the hospital's chronic care programs.

"It's unique in that we do everything," Rotstein said, adding that despite its size, Tel Hashomer staff haven't lost the human touch.

"We are simple people," he said. "We are part of the people of Israel. That means the patient immediately gets our sympathy. He is not coming to Mecca and we try to guarantee everyone not only the best treatment, but to be sympathetic to the patient. We will put our hands on your shoulder. We will listen to you. We call it the Sheba spirit."

About 80 Tel Hashomer doctors were called up during last summer's Hezbollah war, and the hospital played a big part in treating wounded soldiers. As a result of its experiences, the hospital is moving to improve its rehabilitation programs. After receiving acute care treatment at other hospitals, more than 100 wounded soldiers were sent to Tel Hashomer for treatment, and 10 still remain, months after the conflict ended, he said.

Injuries in Lebanon generally were not caused by rifle bullets as in past wars, but were worse because Hezbollah fighters' personal weapon of choice seems to have been the more deadly anti-tank rockets.

Prior to that conflict, Tel Hashomer had developed the concept of a "virtual hospital," in which computers, simulators and actors combine to provide doctors and emergency response teams training in responding to catastrophic events, such as chemical, biological and nuclear attacks. The Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and the Albert Einstein Medical Center in Sao Paulo contract with Tel Hashomer for training in those areas.

Two of the hospital's programs are geared for Palestinian youngsters. "We are the only facility that cares for Palestinian kids with cancer and we accept them without condition," Rotstein said. The second program treats congenital heart failure. Without the programs - 80 per cent success rate for cancer patients, better than 90 per cent for heart treatment - "they are dying."

Operated in collaboration with the Peres Fund for Peace, the hospital treats 50 Palestinian kids or more at any one time and special residences are available for their families. It is an irony at Chaim Sheba that many of the doctors taking care of the Palestinians are also soldiers in the Israel Defence Forces, he added.

"We feel that in this way, we are advancing peace among peoples and we feel every family is an ambassador. They see not just the tip of the rifle and soldiers. We show them another side of Israel - smiling, caring staff that tries to help them reduce their misery and cure them."

One pair of Palestinian boys, aged 10 and 12, were electrocuted while trying to retrieve a kite tangled in power lines. They spent more than one year in rehab, being fitted with prosthetic arms and legs before being returned to Gaza, he said. What's more, they and others using the hospital, were not charged any fee.

The hospital charges the Israeli government insurer, receives income from a number of contractual services it provides internationally and raises money in Israel and abroad from support groups.

Tel Hashomer has particularly effective friends groups in Austria - many of them not Jewish - Germany, France and the United Kingdom.

The centre sends many doctors to Canada for training, and Jewish missions to Israel often stop at Tel Hashomer for a tour.

As for financial support, Canadian Jews, he acknowledged, have many different charitable organizations seeking their support. "Awareness is very important for us. We want every Jew to be proud of what we do for the people of Israel and for the area as well. We care very much about it."