Prof. Ravona is a geriatric psychiatrist and an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the Tel Aviv University. She is the director of a multidisciplinary clinical unit focused on diagnosis, treatment and management of cognitive, emotional and behavioral problems in the context of dementia and neurodegenerative disorders. The unit provides state of the art diagnostic procedures for dementia and treatments for Alzheimer's disease.
Prof. Ravona's research focuses on risk factors and mechanisms underlying cognitive deterioration and dementia. She is the Project Director for two large longitudinal studies at the JSNC aimed at characterizing risk factors for cognitive deterioration/conversion to dementia in cognitively normal at-risk populations: offspring of AD patients (Israel Registry for Alzheimer's Prevention- IRAP study) and older adults with type 2 diabetes (Israel Diabetes and Cognitive Decline – IDCD study). Dr. Ravona has been awarded research grants from the Alzheimer’s Association and the American Federation for Aging Research to study the role of nutrition in cognitive decline in the context of diabetes, from the Israel Science Foundation and Teva Pharmaceuticals to study the relationship of retinal structure/function with cognitive performance, brain structure and function in asymptomatic individuals at risk for Alzheimer’s disease. In the last decade, Dr. Ravona expanded her research to include non-cognitive components of aging and dementia, particularly apathy, a prevalent behavioral symptom. She received funds from Tel Aviv University and from the Alzheimer’s Disease Drug Foundation (ADDF) (#GDADB201906-2018926) to develop a prototype of a VR- based and physiological measures- based tool for objective quantification of apathy. Additionally, she received an NIA grant (#R21AG080827) to study apathy in cognitively normal middle-aged individuals at increased risk for dementia. The projects in which she is involved have yielded many publications in leading journals concerning diabetes and psychosocial factors associated with cognitive impairment.
Education:
1996-2001, Psychiatry, Resident, Sheba Medical Centre, Tel Hashomer, Israel
1987-1993, MD, Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Israel
Employment History Experience:
2021-present, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
2016-2021, Senior lecturer, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
2012-2016, Lecturer, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
Affiliations
2021 - present Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
2006 - 2024 Head of Memory Clinic and the Geriatric Psychiatry Unit at the Sheba Medical Center, Israel
2024 - present Head of Behavioral and Cognitive Neurology Unit at the Sheba Medical Center, Israel
Membership in Professional/ Scientific Societies
Israel Association of Psychiatry
Israel Association of Biological Psychiatry
Alzheimer's Association International Society to Advance
Alzheimer's Research and Treatment (ISTAART)
Awards, Citations, Honors, Competitive Fellowships
2024, Sheba Neuroscience Grants, The association of social cognition and apathy
2023-2024, NIA R21AG080827; Cognitive and brain imaging correlates of apathy- components in asymptomatic middle aged individuals at high ADRD risk.
2020-2022, Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF). Novel virtual reality method to distinguish apathy from depression in the context of dementia. This study aims to develop a virtual-reality based method for measurement of apathy in the context of dementia and differentiating it from depression.
2019-2024, NIA R01 AG061093. Systemic and dietary advanced glycation end products in type 2 diabetes-related cognitive decline and incident dementia: effects on Alzheimer's pathology and cerebrovascular disease. This study the role of dietary and systemic advanced glycation end products on AD and cerebrovascular pathology measured in vivo in the Israel Diabetes and Cognitive Decline Study.
2019, Accelerated redesign collaboration (ARC) of the innovation center at the Sheba Medical Center. The aim of this grant is to enable development of an artificial intelligence (AI) tool for detecting presence of psychosis in the medical records of patients with dementia and exploiting the vast amount of patient-related data in these records in order to identify subtypes of psychosis in dementia and their differential response to treatment.
2018-2019, The Bircher Banner Foundation. This grant aims to enable assessment of feasibility of a virtual reality method to measure apathy in the context of dementia.
2018-2019, The Ofer Mordechai Foundation. This grant aims to enable assessment of feasibility of a virtual reality method to measure apathy in the context of dementia.
2016-2024, NIA R01 AG051545 Hyperbaric oxygen therapy for cognition in diabetic elderly at high dementia risk This study examines the effect of hyperbaric oxygen therapy on cognitive function of diabetic elderly at high risk for dementia.
2016-2019, The Israel Science Foundation. The retina in middle aged individuals at high risk for dementia and hippocampal structure and function.
2016-2018, Teva Pharmaceuticals (NNE program). Retinal structure and function and memory impairment in offspring of Alzheimer’s disease patients.
2015-2018, NIA R21AG043878. Instability of glycemic control and hippocampal structure and function.
Publications:
Here is a link to the publications of Prof. Ramit Ravona-Springer in PubMed: a database of scientific articles in the fields of medicine and life sciences
