Articles

Harm reduction drug policy in Israel: what has been accomplished and what still needs to be done?

The leading formal drug policy in Israel is the traditional approach of abstinence, probation, and punitive measures based on three main pillars: Enforcement, Treatment and Rehabilitation, and Prevention. Howe...

Authors: Hagit Bonny-Noach

Financial incentives as a governmental tool to bridge the medical manpower gap between Israel’s center and periphery

One of the major health disparities between Israel’s center and periphery relates to the physician to population ratio. To overcome it, the Israeli government launched a financial incentive program in 2011, in...

Authors: Eyal Jacobson and Vered Ezra

Correction to: Hierarchy of hair loss stigma: media portrayals of cancer, alopecia areata, and ringworm in Israeli Newspapers

The original publication of this article [1] contained an incorrect title.

Authors: Daphna Yeshua-Katz, Shifra Shvarts and Dorit Segal-Engelchin

Commentary: seclusion and mechanical restraint of psychiatric patients in Israel - an update

Recently, Miodownik et al. reported in this journal the results of a study on seclusion and mechanical restraint of psychiatric patients in Israel (Isr J Health Policy Res 8:9, 2019). The study was a retrospec...

Authors: Yoav Kohn, Igor Barash and Gadi Lubin

The number of acute cerebrovascular events in Israel: a forecast until 2040

Acute cerebrovascular event is one of the leading causes of death in Israel and is the primary cause of neurological disability in adults. Although some evidence indicates that the incidence rate of acute cere...

Authors: Assaf Ben Shoham, Sigal Liberant-Taub, Mor Sharon and Inbar Zucker

Maximizing influenza vaccination uptake among healthcare personnel in Israel: lessons learned from mandatory vaccination policy in the United States

Maximizing vaccination uptake is crucial in generating herd immunity and preventing infection incidence (Quach et al., Am J Infect Control 11:1017–23, 2013). Vaccination of healthcare personnel (HCP) against i...

Authors: Rachel Gur-Arie

Evidence-based preschool-age vision screening: health policy considerations

There are many causes of visual impairment, and even blindness, which are treatable or at least preventable. Two such conditions are strabismus (crossed-eye, squint) and refractive error (visual image not focu...

Authors: Deena Rachel Zimmerman, Hadas Ben-Eli, Bruce Moore, Monique Toledano, Chen Stein-Zamir and Ariela Gordon-Shaag

Abstracts from the 7th International Jerusalem Conference on Health Policy

Authors:

Hierarchy of hair loss stigma: media portrayals of cancer, alopecia areata, and ringworm in Israeli newspapers

Over 300,000 people in Israel cope with temporary or permanent hair loss (alopecia) that results from diseases and medical treatments. For women, hair loss can be a highly traumatic event that may lead to adve...

Authors: Daphna Yeshua-Katz, Shifra Shvarts and Dorit Segal-Engelchin

Correlates of gastroenterology health-services utilization among patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease: a large database analysis

Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is associated with high utilization of health care services. Diagnostic tests usually are not required to establish GERD diagnosis, but endoscopy is recommended for patie...

Authors: Wasef Na’amnih, Racheli Katz, Sophy Goren, Amir Ben-Tov, Tomer Ziv-Baran, Gabriel Chodick and Khitam Muhsen

Measuring the academic value of academic medical centers: describing a methodology for developing an evaluation model at one Academic Medical Center

Academic Medical Centers (AMCs) must simultaneously serve different purposes:

Authors: Rafael Hod, Oded Maimon and Eyal Zimlichman

No-shows in ambulatory clinics and non-utilized appointments for elective operations in selected surgical departments at a tertiary hospital in Israel

The phenomenon of a patient missing a medical appointment without notification is called a “no-show”. In contrast, “non-utilized appointments” are a broader phenomenon including all appointments that didn’t oc...

Authors: Lior Cohen-Yatziv, Matan Joel Cohen, Jonathan Halevy and Ehud Kaliner

Geographic variation of hysterectomy rates in the Israeli health care system during the years 2007–2016

In 2014 the OECD published a report regarding inter-regional variation of hysterectomies in 13 countries including Israel. Variance in hospital admission rates were also reported. The Israeli Ministry of Healt...

Authors: Roy Lauterbach, Mendlovic Joseph, Ziona Haklai, Lavie Gil and Lior Lowenstein

Vaccination uptake and income inequalities within a mass vaccination campaign

In July 2013, Israel was swept with fear of a polio outbreak. In response to the importation of wild polio virus, the Ministry decided to take preventive action by administering oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV) to a...

Authors: Aviad Tur-Sinai, Rachel Gur-Arie, Nadav Davidovitch, Eran Kopel, Yael Glazer, Emilia Anis and Itamar Grotto

Specialty services offered by pharmacists in the community

In a recent IJHPR article, Schwartzberg and colleagues report on clinical and other specialty services offered by pharmacists in the community in Israel and in the international arena. The article covers examp...

Authors: Anthony P. Morreale, Julie A. Groppi and Heather Ourth

Health literacy in an Israeli elderly population

Health literacy is important for patients’ comprehension of the health and medical messages conveyed to them and their meaning for them so that they can better manage their health. The aim of the study was to ...

Authors: Michal Hochhauser, Michael Brusovansky, Maria Sirotin and Katerina Bronfman

Retraction Note to: Workplace bullying and its preventive measures and productivity among emergency department nurses

The Publisher has retracted this article [1] because it was published in this journal in error. This article is republished in BMC Health Services Research [2].

Authors: Suhair Hussni Al-Ghabeesh and Haya Qattom

Language practice and policy in Israeli hospitals: the case of the Hebrew and Arabic languages

Organizational language practice and policy are not neutral elements but reflect social and political power relations. The micro-level of working groups is subject to the influence of political conflicts and p...

Authors: Yael Keshet and Ariela Popper-Giveon

Digital recording and documentation of endoscopic procedures: physicians’ practice and perspectives

In recent years, it has become increasingly prevalent internationally to record and archive digital recordings of endoscopic procedures. This emerging documentation tool raises weighty educational, ethical and...

Authors: Maya Peled-Raz, Nadav Willner, Dan Shteinberg, Keren Or-Chen and Tova Rainis

Correction to: home hospice for older people with advanced dementia: a pilot project

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Authors: Shelley A. Sternberg, Ron Sabar, Glynis Katz, Ronit Segal, Liat Fux-Zach, Valeria Grofman, Gery Roth, Netta Cohen, Zorian Radomyslaski and Netta Bentur

The Holocaust, medicine and becoming a physician: the crucial role of education

Learning about the abandonment of moral principles of healthcare professionals and scientists, their societies and academic institutions, to a murderous ideology yields fundamental concerns and global implicat...

Authors: Shmuel P. Reis, Hedy S. Wald and Paul Weindling

Pharmacovigilance strategy: opportunities for cross-national learning

The Israeli Ministry of Health has set up the foundations of a National Pharmacovigilance System. The next step is to adopt the best of the international ideas, trends and approaches which are shaping the futu...

Authors: Irene Fermont

Ethnic disparities in cardiac transplantation: opportunities to improve long-term outcomes in all cardiac transplant recipients

Ethnic disparities in cardiovascular outcomes have been increasingly recognized in the medical literature. In a recent paper in this journal, Peled et al. provide evidence that Arab Israelis may have worse out...

Authors: Jeremy Kobulnik, Yasbanoo Moayedi and Douglas Greig

Cultural competence in a context of ethnic tension

This commentary describes how the first program for enhancing cultural competence in an Israeli healthcare facility was implemented at the ALYN Hospital Pediatric and Adolescent Rehabilitation Center in Jerusa...

Authors: Eliezer Be’eri, Maurit Beeri and Tal Cohen

Multidisciplinary work promotes preventive medicine and health education in primary care: a cross-sectional survey

Preventive medicine and health education are among the strategies used in coping with chronic diseases. However, it is yet to be determined what effect do personal and organizational aspects have on its’ imple...

Authors: Ayelet Schor, Lucia Bergovoy-Yellin, Daniel Landsberger, Tania Kolobov and Orna Baron-Epel

Applying local epidemiological data to national policy – the case study of the epidemiology of wrist and hand injury in Jerusalem

Recently, Luria et al. (2019) published a paper in The Israeli Journal for Health Policy Research describing the epidemiology of wrist and hand injuries in two hospitals in Jerusalem. In this important paper, the...

Authors: Moran Bodas, Adi Givon and Kobi Peleg

Mechanical ventilation in medical departments: a necessary evil, or a blessing in bad disguise?

In most countries there is a mismatch between demand for intensive care unit (ICU) beds and ICU bed availability. Because of a policy of low ICU-bed reimbursement this mismatch is much more profound in Israel,...

Authors: Yuval Schwartz, Amir Jarjoui and Amos M. Yinnon

Point-of-sale marketing of heated tobacco products in Israel: cause for concern

Understanding how PMI markets IQOS at the point-of-sale in Israel is critical to determining whether marketing practices adhere to regulations and appeal to groups most at risk at initiating new tobacco produc...

Authors: Bonnie Halpern-Felsher

The economic burden of health disparities related to socioeconomic status in Israel

Low socioeconomic status (SES) is often associated with excess morbidity and premature mortality. Such health disparities claim a steep economic cost: Possibly-preventable poor health outcomes harm societal we...

Authors: Eran Politzer, Amir Shmueli and Shlomit Avni

Barriers to help-seeking in Israeli Arab minority adolescents with mental health problems: results from the Galilee study

The Galilee Study assessed mental health service needs among Israeli Muslim and Druze adolescents and their mothers. Studies show that mothers of adolescents belonging to the Arab minority have much lower help...

Authors: Raida Daeem, Ivonne Mansbach-Kleinfeld, Ilana Farbstein, Alan Apter, Rasha Elias, Anneke Ifrah, Gabriel Chodick and Silvana Fennig

RETRACTED ARTICLE: Workplace bullying and its preventive measures and productivity among emergency department nurses

Workplace bullying has adverse effects on nurses’ productivity and emotional well-being and increases nurses’ desire to leave their jobs. Bullying is a common phenomenon that has been reported worldwide. Emerg...

Authors: Suhair Hussni Al-Ghabeesh and Haya Qattom

Factors affecting oral examinations and dental treatments among older adults in Israel

Routine dental examinations are important for early diagnosis and treatment of dental problems among older adults in order to improve their quality of life and avoid costly future treatments. In Israel, a sign...

Authors: Shosh Shahrabani

Home hospice for older people with advanced dementia: a pilot project

Dementia is a terminal illness making the palliative and hospice approach to care appropriate for older people with advanced dementia.

Authors: Shelley A. Sternberg, Ron Sabar, Glynis Katz, Ronit Segal, Liat Fux-Zach, Valeria Grofman, Gery Roth, Netta Cohen, Zorian Radomyslaski and Netta Bentur

The promise – and pitfalls – of smoke-free policy adoption

Environmental Tobacco Smoke (ETS) is a major, preventable cause of morbidity and mortality, disproportionately impacting vulnerable populations. Policy measures, guided by the WHO’s Framework Convention of Tob...

Authors: Vaughan W. Rees

Prevention, prevention and prevention

A recent study by Levy et al. presents the dental treatment needs of a large sample of combat soldiers. They found that 80% need some dental care.

Authors: Shlomo Paul Zusman

Ethnic inequality within the elderly population in utilizing healthcare services

The accessibility of minority ethnic groups to healthcare services is challenging in many societies, most especially among the elderly population. Elderly individuals from minority groups have been found to ha...

Authors: B. Adini

Learning from negative findings

A recent IJHPR article by Azulay et al. found no association between the patient activation measure (PAM) and adherence to colonoscopy after a positive fecal occult blood test result. This commentary will use ...

Authors: Mark I. Taragin

Disparities, variations, inequalities or inequities: whatever you call them, we need data to monitor them

Health inequalities are a problem in high, middle and low income countries. Most are unfair (‘inequities’) and could be minimised but primarily through policies outside the health service.

Authors: Jennifer S. Mindell

The more health policies change, the more they change the same way

In a series of articles over the last 5 years, Richard Saltman, one of the foremost scholars in the field of comparative health systems has begun to question whether traditional pillars of these systems are in...

Authors: David Chinitz

Optimizing the treatment of pain and anxiety in pediatric emergencies: the role of accreditation

Pervasive disparities exist in the treatment of pain and anxiety in pediatric patients presenting to hospitals with emergency conditions. This finding has been demonstrated worldwide, and is especially exacerb...

Authors: Aaron Brody and Usha Sethuraman

Data integration of electronic medical record under administrative decentralization of medical insurance and healthcare in China: a case study

In most regions of China, Electronic Medical Record (EMR) systems in hospitals are developed in an uncoordinated manner. Medical Insurance and Healthcare Administration are localised and organizations gather d...

Authors: Zhong Wang

Preventing physician burnout: satisfaction or something more?

Physician burnout and depression have been recognized as serious international problems and the secondary costs of poor physician mental health are substantial. Interventions to address this problem can be spl...

Authors: Stuart Slavin

Is the oral health reform in Israel optimally distributed? - A commentary

A traditional and ethical principle recognizes a country’s primary general welfare responsibility to the young and the old. However, the middle, adult, age group cannot and should not be disregarded. The curre...

Authors: Harold Sgan-Cohen, Guy Tobias and Avraham Zini

The courts as political players

Courts are political animals; as a result, they strive not only to carry out their assigned role in national governance but also to balance that role within the political and social system in which they operat...

Authors: Sara Rosenbaum

Public educational psychology services in Israel on the internet

The public Educational Psychology Services provide mental health services for children and youth in Israel, alongside the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Social Affairs and Services. The Psychological a...

Authors: Sarit Alkalay and Avivit Dolev

Assessing and monitoring the impact of the national newborn hearing screening program in Israel

The Israeli Newborn Hearing Screening Program (NHSP) began operating nationally in January 2010. The program includes the Otoacoustic Emissions (OAE) test for all newborns and Automated Auditory Brainstem Resp...

Authors: Janice Wasser, Daphne Ari-Even Roth, Orly Herzberg, Liat Lerner-Geva and Lisa Rubin

Minorities and foreign born are disproportionately affected by injuries due to violence: an analysis based on a National Trauma Registry 2008–2017

Populations of different ethnicity and country of origin living in the same country may possess particular features of violence-related injuries. This study aims to compare violence-related injury characterist...

Authors: Abebe Tiruneh, Irina Radomislensky, Kobi Peleg and Maya Siman-Tov

Fake bus stops for persons with dementia? On truth and benevolent lies in public health

Fake bus stops are one strategy to keep persons with dementia (PwD) from wandering. By setting up authentic looking shelters and benches in hallways or gardens, nursing homes create the illusion of bus stops, ...

Authors: Pauline Lorey

Optimal continuous support accompanying labor - the midwives’ and laboring women’s point of view

Women who have continuous intrapartum support are more likely to have a shorter labor and spontaneous vaginal birth, and are less likely to need intrapartum analgesia than women who receive usual care without ...

Authors: Maya Frank Wolf, Oleg Shnaider, Limor Sharabi, Sari Nahir Biderman, Reut Elon and Jacob Bornstein

Mini research projects as a mechanism to improve the quality of dementia care

Several models have been proposed to connect academia and practice in order to improve long-term care. In this paper we propose and describe the “Mini-Research Group” as an alternative model of such collaborat...

Authors: Hava Golander