Articles

Improving access to essential health care services: the case of Israel

In a recent article in this journal Simon-Tuval, Horev and Kaplan argue that in order to improve the protection of consumers there might be a need to impose a threshold on the medical loss ratio (MLR) for volu...

Authors: Wynand P.M.M. van de Ven

Integration of advanced practice providers into the Israeli healthcare system

Many countries around the world have integrated various types of Advanced Practice Providers (APPs) into their healthcare systems. The main motivating factors for recognizing and developing APPs worldwide incl...

Authors: Eliana Marcus Aaron and Caryn Scheinberg Andrews

Erratum to: The burden of smoking in Israel–attributable mortality and costs (2014)

Authors: Gary M. Ginsberg and Haim Geva

How can we improve amniocentesis decision-making?

The decision to have an amniocentesis entails a trade-off between a risk of procedure associated miscarriage and the benefit of obtaining diagnostic information to identify Down syndrome or other chromosomal a...

Authors: Lisa Soleymani Lehmann

Vaccine hesitancy: understanding better to address better

Vaccine hesitancy is an emerging term in the socio-medical literature which describes an approach to vaccine decision making. It recognizes that there is a continuum between full acceptance and outright refusa...

Authors: Dewesh Kumar, Rahul Chandra, Medha Mathur, Saurabh Samdariya and Neelesh Kapoor

International publication trends and collaboration performance of China in healthcare science and services research

In recent years, China’s healthcare reforms and related studies have drawn particular global attention. The main objective of this study is to evaluate quantitatively the publication trends and collaboration p...

Authors: Kai Chen, Qiang Yao, Ju Sun, Zhi-fei He, Lan Yao and Zhi-yong Liu

Private finance of services covered by the National Health Insurance package of benefits in Israel

Private health expenditure in systems of national health insurance has raised concern in many countries. The concern is mainly about the accessibility of care to the poor and the sick, and inequality in use an...

Authors: Esti Engelchin-Nissan and Amir Shmueli

Coming of age: pharmacy practice in the 21st century

Individuals, families, health plans and governments are struggling with the growing importance of managing chronic, non-communicable diseases. People in many countries are living longer and thus are facing man...

Authors: Donald F. Downing

Models for projecting supply and demand for nurses in Israel

Concern is growing over serious shortages in the nursing workforce and imbalance between supply and demand. Projections indicate that the demand for the nursing workforce will increase due to the aging populat...

Authors: Nurit Nirel, Orli Grinstien-Cohen, Yonatan Eyal, Hadar Samuel and Assaf Ben-Shoham

Procedures in pediatric primary care: first do no harm

Two important considerations arise from this IJHPR article from Zimmerman and colleagues. First, is the question regarding what can be considered a “common” procedure in primary care and whether the designatio...

Authors: Gary L. Freed

Referral patterns of Israeli pediatricians of common primary care office procedures

Pediatric primary care is the cornerstone of health care services for children. Performance of common office procedures is an integral part of primary care. Ideally, the community-based primary care pediatrici...

Authors: Deena R. Zimmerman, Yona Amitai, Zahi Grossman and Chen Stein-Zamir

The case of pharmacist prescribing policy in Israel

Pharmacy prescribing policy in Israel has been negotiated and changed in recent years in order to improve patient treatment and access to medicines, and reduce national health insurance costs by allowing pharm...

Authors: Hila Yariv

A qualitative study of enablers and barriers influencing the incorporation of social accountability values into organisational culture: a perspective from two medical schools

Definitions of social accountability describe the obligation of medical schools to direct education, research and service activities towards addressing the priority health concerns of the population they serve...

Authors: Nicholas Leigh-Hunt, Laura Stroud, Deborah Murdoch Eaton and Mary Rudolf

Big Data in Israeli healthcare: hopes and challenges report of an international workshop

In September 2015, the Israel National Institute for Health Policy Research (NIHP) organized a workshop to address the hopes and challenges of Big Data in healthcare in the Israeli context. The paper provides ...

Authors: Christian Lovis and Ronni Gamzu

A survey of energy drink and alcohol mixed with energy drink consumption

Energy drink consumption among youth is increasing despite recommendations by the American Academy of Pediatrics to eliminate consumption by youth. This study provides information on consumption of energy drin...

Authors: Racheli Magnezi, Lisa Carroll Bergman, Haya Grinvald-Fogel and Herman Avner Cohen

Being a legal guardian – the nursing perspective

Surrogate decision making is common in public healthcare worldwide. In Israel any incompetent adult patient requires a Legal Guardian (LG), appointed by the court, for approval of invasive none-life saving pro...

Authors: Michael Kuniavsky, Ilana Kadmon and David Chinitz

Family history intake: a challenge to personalized approaches in health promotion and disease prevention

Family history is considered an essential, obligatory part of the primary physician’s intake interview. Including coded FH in a unified medical file can save expensive genetic tests and detect the early onset ...

Authors: Ronit Endevelt, Iris Goren, Tal Sela and Varda Shalev

Role of primary care providers in a pandemic – conflicting views and future opportunities

In pandemic situations, primary care providers may be involved in a variety of roles related to disease surveillance, diagnosis and treatment, prevention, and patient education. This commentary describes the c...

Authors: Sarah J. Clark

Differences in characteristics of pediatric patients undergoing computed tomography between hospitals and primary care settings: implications for assessing cancer follow-up studies

Recently published analyses showed that computed tomography (CT) scans in pediatric patients are associated with increased risk of radiation-related cancer. These analyses were based on data collected both fro...

Authors: Gabriel Chodick, Moran Levin, Ruth A. Kleinerman, Michael Shwarz, Varda Shalev, Shai Ashkenazi and Gad Horev

Undergraduate medical education in the U.S. and Israel: contrasts and common challenges

In 2014, the Israeli Council for Higher Education (CHE) commissioned an international panel of outstanding educators to prepare an ad hoc report reviewing the four established medical schools in Israel. The repor...

Authors: Arthur M. Feldman

Solving the worldwide emergency department crowding problem – what can we learn from an Israeli ED?

ED crowding is a prevalent and important issue facing hospitals in Israel and around the world, including North and South America, Europe, Australia, Asia and Africa. ED crowding is associated with poorer qual...

Authors: Jesse M. Pines and Steven L. Bernstein

Organizational factors affecting length of stay in the emergency department: initial observational study

Length of stay (LOS) is considered a key measure of emergency department throughput, and from the perspective of the patient, it is perceived as a measure of healthcare service quality. Prolonged LOS can be ca...

Authors: Osnat Bashkin, Sigalit Caspi, Rachel Haligoa, Sari Mizrahi and Ruth Stalnikowicz

Challenges of the Pandemic Response in Primary Care during Pre-Vaccination Period: A Qualitative Study

During the 2009/A/H1N1 pandemic, the main burden of the patient management fell on primary care physicians (PCPs), and they were the principal implementers of pandemic policies. Broad involvement of PCPs in th...

Authors: Marina Kunin, Dan Engelhard, Shane Thomas, Mark Ashworth and Leon Piterman

Observations and recommendations on the investigation of clinical decision-making and usage involving electrophysical agents

Electrophysical agents (EPAs), including electrotherapy, are important components of patient/client management. A recent study by Springer et al. has elucidated the pattern of use and factors in clinical decis...

Authors: David M. Selkowitz

What do people die from? The challenges of measuring disease burden posed by multi-morbidity

Determining the precise cause of death of an individual has become increasingly difficult as life prolonging treatments mean that many people may die with multiple disorders, any of which, individually or in c...

Authors: Martin McKee

Policy issues related to educating the future Israeli medical workforce: an international perspective

A 2014 external review of medical schools in Israel identified several issues of importance to the nation’s health. This paper focuses on three inter-related policy-relevant topics: planning the physician and ...

Authors: Stephen C. Schoenbaum, Peter Crome, Raymond H. Curry, Elliot S. Gershon, Shimon M. Glick, David R. Katz, Ora Paltiel and Jo Shapiro

Perception of the threat of War in Israel- implications for future preparedness planning

It has been recently reported that the preparedness of the Israeli public to a war scenario is mediocre. These findings suggest a need to study the psychosocial mechanisms behind individual motivation to engag...

Authors: Moran Bodas, Maya Siman-Tov, Shulamith Kreitler and Kobi Peleg

High Israeli mortality rates from diabetes and renal failure - Can international comparison of multiple causes of death reflect differences in choice of underlying cause?

The age-adjusted mortality rate in Israel is low compared to most Western countries although mortality rates from diabetes and renal failure in Israel are amongst the highest, while those from cardiovascular d...

Authors: Nehama Goldberger, Yael Applbaum, Jill Meron and Ziona Haklai

Highly reliable behaviors

A lack of respect between nursing and medical disciplines can lead to a lack of trust and disruptive behaviors that are a significant part of the culture of health care today. In order to ensure the best care ...

Authors: Erin S. DuPree

Toward the way forward: building an emergency mental health system for Israel

A number of related changes have evolved over the past 25 years: the development of a truly national disaster mental health service in Israel; progress in the science of risk, resilience and evidence base care...

Authors: Merritt D. Schreiber

Universal versus tailored solutions for alleviating disruptive behavior in hospitals

Disruptive behavior among hospital staff can negatively affect quality of care. Motivated by a standard on disruptive behavior issued by The Joint Commission (LD 3.10), as well as the desire to improve patient...

Authors: Talia Berman-Kishony and Shifra Shvarts

Attitudes toward expanding nurses’ authority

In recent years, an increasing number of care procedures previously under the physician’s authority have been placed in the hands of registered nurses. The purpose of this study was to examine the attitudes of...

Authors: Hana Kerzman, Dina Van Dijk, Limor Eizenberg, Rut Khaikin, Shoshi Phridman, Maya Siman-Tov and Shoshi Goldberg

Marketing or strategy? Defining the best approach to expand the anesthesiology workforce in Israel

There is a chronic shortage of anesthesiologists in Israel. The study by Cohen et al. suggests that a marketing campaign may be one method of addressing this shortage. This commentary argues for a more comprehens...

Authors: Michael C. Lewis and Gilbert J. Grant

The challenge of benchmarking health systems: is ICT innovation capacity more systemic than organizational dependent?

The article by Catan et al. presents a benchmarking exercise comparing Israel and Portugal on the implementation of Information and Communication Technologies in the healthcare sector. Special attention was gi...

Authors: Luís Velez Lapão

Creating patient-centered health care systems to improve outcomes and reduce disparities

Health care delivery systems that are designed to understand and meet patient preferences for care have the potential to improve health outcomes and reduce disparities. Studies that rigorously assess patient c...

Authors: Julie A. Schmittdiel

The limited effect of information on Israeli pregnant women at advanced maternal age who decide to undergo amniocentesis

A primary goal of amniocentesis is the detection of trisomy 21 (Down syndrome- DS) in the fetus. This procedure involves a small risk of miscarriage. As the risk of DS increases with maternal age, screening te...

Authors: Julia Grinshpun-Cohen, Talya Miron-Shatz, Michal Berkenstet and Elon Pras

Health information technology implementation - impacts and policy considerations: a comparison between Israel and Portugal

The use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in health systems is increasing worldwide. While it is assumed that ICT holds great potential to make health services more efficient and grant patient...

Authors: Gabriel Catan, Rita Espanha, Rita Veloso Mendes, Orly Toren and David Chinitz

In developed countries male circumcision prevalence is inversely related to HIV prevalence

A study by Chemtob and co-workers found significantly lower prevalence of HIV amongst heterosexual men and women in Israel compared with the Netherlands and France. Risk factors for heterosexual HIV infection ...

Authors: Brian J. Morris and Jeffrey D. Klausner

Reducing income-related inequalities in care and health: insights from Israel

Amir Shmueli assessed income-related disparities in healthcare and health in Israel, extending earlier studies that focused primarily on education, ethnic or geographic differences. The new analysis finds that...

Authors: Cathy Schoen

Impact of Male Circumcision among heterosexual HIV cases: comparisons between three low HIV prevalence countries

Studies performed in high-HIV prevalence countries showed a strong epidemiological association between male circumcision (MC) and the prevention of HIV transmission. We estimated the potential impact of MC on ...

Authors: Daniel Chemtob, Eline Op de Coul, Ard van Sighem, Zohar Mor, Françoise Cazein and Caroline Semaille

Managing physician lipid management: a population wide, risk-based decision support approach

Successful implementation of clinical guidelines for preventing complications of dyslipidemias has been an ongoing challenge. The article by Vinker and colleagues in this journal investigates the results of im...

Authors: Lisa V. Rubenstein

The evolution of the emergency mental health system in Israel - from the 1980’s until today

Emergency and disaster situations such as war or terrorism can leave a devastating impact on the mental well-being of victimized populations. In Israel, the civilian aspects of trauma-related mental distress w...

Authors: Moran Bodas, Bella Ben-Gershon, Zohar Rubinstein, Tal Bergman-Levy and Kobi Peleg

Better together: a community- hospital integrative model of healthcare as a practical solution for providing excellence in endocrinology care in an era of limited resources

The demand for endocrinology services is growing worldwide, particularly among minority and underserved populations, mainly due to the rapid global increase of diabetes. The medical education of endocrinologis...

Authors: Anat Jaffe, Aviva Yoselis and Liana Tripto-Shkolnik

Challenges faced by Arab women who are interested in becoming physicians

Understanding the underlying reasons for the under-representation of Arab women within the health care system in Israel is crucial for creating future strategies for intervention, in order to minimize the gaps...

Authors: Bishara Bisharat and Abdalla Bowirrat

Public attitudes and values in priority setting

There is growing recognition that critical decisions concerning investments in new health care technologies and services should incorporate society’s values along with the scientific evidence. From a normative...

Authors: Stuart J Peacock

Smart marketing may improve public understanding of the anesthesia profession

A 2005 survey led by the Israeli Society of Anesthesiologists (ISA) found that large parts of the Israeli public are not familiar with the profession of anesthesia. The ISA has subsequently been conducting a p...

Authors: Barak Cohen, Daniel Ogorek, Stanislav Oifa, Anat Cattan and Idit Matot

Clinical decision making for using electro-physical agents by physiotherapists, an Israeli survey

Electro-physical agents (EPAs) are fundamental components in the management arsenal of physiotherapy. The objective of this study was to provide a comprehensive understanding of the factors affecting the decis...

Authors: Shmuel Springer, Yocheved Laufer and Michal Elboim-Gabyzon

Saltman on solidarity

Richard Saltman suggests that solidarity, a cherished notion at the heart of West European health care systems is being reconsidered in the light of today’s austere economic conditions. Solidarity, he argues, ...

Authors: Lawrence D. Brown and David P. Chinitz

Physicians’ behavior following changes in LDL cholesterol target goals

In 01/2011 Clalit Health Services (CHS), changed the LDL-Cholesterol target definitions in its quality indicators program, from a universal target to values stratified by risk assessment based on ATP III crite...

Authors: Shlomo Vinker, Haim Bitterman, Doron Comaneshter and Arnon D Cohen

Israeli Druze women’s sex preferences when choosing obstetricians and gynecologists

Consideration and better understanding of patients’ needs on the part of the healthcare system might help increase the number of people seeking necessary medical care. Many studies have been conducted on patie...

Authors: Jonia Amer-Alshiek, Tahani Alshiek, Yifat Amir Levy, Foad Azem, Ami Amit and Hadar Amir