Medical education & Training

We place a particular emphasis on teaching, and maintain a high level of up-to-date surgical training for medical students. We have incorporated innovative instrumentation and models in a new seminar room. Our emphasis on the quality and sophistication of instruction has yielded fruit; in 2007 no medical student completing the surgical rotation in the Ein Kerem Department of Surgery failed national examinations in surgery.

Over the last five years we have seen an increase in guest students from around the world (Cyprus, Greece, Germany, Jordan, Egypt, Puerto Rico, Argentina, Australia, Hungary), who come to the Medical School to participate with Israeli students in elective courses in surgery.

Our department in cooperation with the Hadassah-Hebrew University School of Medicine holds an annual two week obligatory trauma course for sixth year medical students. This unique course was established by the American College of Surgeon's Committee on Trauma and based on the Advance Trauma Life Support (ATLS) course to ingrain trauma preparedness through specialist training.

The trauma course includes mass casualty event workshops which combine the principles of terror medicine and disaster management. Topics covered include principles of mass casualty management, pre-hospital strategy, chemical biological and radiological events and medical implications of biological terror. As the concluding event of the trauma course, a top level comprehensive drill involving key emergency personnel is conducted, simulating the experience of a terrorist attack. In this way, students gain a theoretical as well as hands-on experience. Their performance and decision making skills are greatly influenced after such exercises and drills have taken place and appropriate guidelines have been set.

We are the only general surgery department in Israel with a line of residents seeking positions, both from Israel and around the world. All residents in our Department begin with a 6-month rotation in Anesthesiology and Critical Care. Residents play a key role in morbidity-mortality conferences. We have a dedicated operating room for resident training under the guidance and supervision of attending surgeons, and have seen an increase in the rate of resident publications both in Israel and abroad. In the most recent meeting of the Israeli Surgical society, 10 of 30 posters were authored by residents from our Department. We emphasize the importance of participation in international surgical meetings, and support meeting attendance for residents whose abstracts are accepted.

Exceptional residents have the opportunity to apply for a year abroad at the prestigious Mount Sinai hospital, New York, which acts as an investment in both their and our future. We believe that participation in international forums improves the quality of training in the Department and helps us to attract the best young medical students into our residency programs.

Since 1990, the Israeli Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) course has been offered at Hadassah. The course was adopted by the Scientific Council of the Israeli Medical Association and is now mandatory for all Israeli physicians licensed in the surgical subspecialities.

Finger on the Pulse

Residents and specialists attend regular multispecialty medical conferences in trauma, breast cancer management, and gastroenterology/ hepatobilliary malignancies. Meetings of the OR Committee, Emergency Department Committee and a variety of other committees and task forces relating to the ongoing work of the Medical Center are held in the department.