Our Recipients' Update

When we came up with the idea to create this prize over seven years ago, we could not have imagined what it has become today. It has been a humbling and inspiring experience to be introduced to the lives and endeavors of Prize recipients whose work deserves our regard and our respect. We feel privileged to be a part of this process and proud of the accomplishments of our alumni, and of the Prize being an early identifier of the importance of their ongoing work and of helping them bring attention to it.

JAY FEINBERG has exceeded our greatest expectations for his endeavors, leading Gift of Life to become one of the world’s most effective and respected bone marrow donor registries, serving on the international registry editorial board and registry accreditation committees, and advising newly forming registries on recruitment strategy and infrastructure requirements. Since Jay founded Gift of Life the organization has facilitated transplants for over 1,900 cancer patients around the world, increased the chances for Jewish patients to find a bone marrow match from 5 percent to 70 percent and built an umbilical cord blood bank which will increase the chances of a suitable match to nearly 100 percent, enabling Gift of Life to serve nearly all Jewish patients who are in need.
DR. ALON TAL was appointed Professor of Environmental Policy at Ben Gurion University in 2007, and a visiting professor of Law at Otago University in New Zealand. He has become the Chairman of the Land Development Authority at Keren Kayemet le'Yisrael International Board. He serves as a mediator between government agencies, developers, and environmentalists on complex and sometimes controversial development issues. Dr. Tal has a huge impact on positive ‘green’ developments within Israel’s environmental policies and is part of a team forming a new "Green Party" to run in the next Knesset elections. He organized the first ever UN sponsored conference to be held in Israel. The conference, on Deserts and Desertification, brought to Israel environmentalists from over 80 countries struggling with this issue. He has a small private practice offering pro bono representation for environmental NGOs.
DR. AMITAI ZIV Since receiving the Prize in 2007, Amitai has: Opened The Schusterman Foundation -- Israel Pediatric Simulation Wing dedicated to simulation-based courses in pediatric with special focus on courses for multidisciplinary health care professionals in the field of Pediatric Abuse, in collaboration with the newly formed "Haruv Institute". MSR on Wheels to improve pre-hospital Trauma Care national preparedness During the last peak of missile attacks on the towns that border on the Gaza Strip, MSR volunteered to send a team of instructors and simulators to run on-site simulation-based pre-hospital trauma training in Netivot and Ashkelon to Kupot Holim community teams. Thanks to a grant from the Everett Foundation, additional training will be given to other HMO community clinics in the "surrounding Gaza" area, aiming at improving the readiness of health professional to manage pre-hospital trauma scenarios. This project is a first step in MSR's strategic plan to provide on-site simulation-based training services around the country – a plan named – "MSR on Wheels" MSR and Sheba program for Trauma Training of Peripheral Hospital MSR has provided in-house trauma training to two major peripheral hospitals as part of another important project undertaken by Sheba Medical Center and MSR to train the trauma units of peripheral hospitals - Barzilai in Ashkelon and Poriah in Tiberias. The program, enabled by a the Rosenblatt Fellowship Grant, included a one year fellowship at the Sheba Trauma Unit of trauma teams from the peripheral hospitals, on-site simulation-based training as well as intensive training at MSR for multidisciplinary teams from both hospitals.  This program meets a very crucial need of the communities and has been very well received and hopefully will expand to additional peripheral hospitals. MSR Auditorium A new technologically sophisticated interactive auditorium is being constructed for MSR, due to be opened at fall of 2008.  This auditorium will enable MSR to effectively disseminate larger scale simulation-based medical education and develop innovative programs to enhance MSR's Patient Safety message. MSR and Case Western Reserve (Cleveland) - Simulation Centers' Collaboration Collaboration in surgical simulation-based curriculum development has started this year between MSR and Case Western Reserve Simulation Center, enabled by a Grant from the Mount Sinai Foundation in Cleveland. This is in addition to the Mayo Clinic - MSR collaboration already in full operation in the field of Critical Care Curriculum enabled by the Nazarian Family Foundation Grant. Multiple visits at MSR by interest groups from all over the worldDuring the past year the growing international interest in the MSR model has been reflected by multiple visits of professionals medical and business groups from various countries including Japan, China, Kazakhstan, India, Italy and more. Many of these visits result in an a negotiation process towards establishing further international collaborations. Dr. Ziv was the recipient of The Michener Honorary Diploma of Health Science Award for leadership and commitment to the for Applied health sciences at The Michener Institute, Toronto, Canada. He has been nominated as a member of the World Health Organization (WHO) Patient Safety Alliance Expert Committee Advisory Group on Patient Safety Curriculum, Geneva, Switzerland Grand Rounds on MSR and Simulation-based education at international sites Sick-Kids hospital and St. Michael's Hospital – Toronto, Canada Calgary Health System and Edmonton Capital Health, Alberta, Canada Albert Einstein Medical Center Autumn in NY OB-Gyn Conference, NYC, NY, US The Fifth Safar Medical Simulation Symposium, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, US The American Academy for Otolaryngology, Washington, D.C, US Tarzana Medical Center, Los Angeles, California, US Italian-Israel Medical Education Collaboration Initiative, Milan, Italy SEDEM – Spanish Association for Medical Education, Tenerife, Spain National Health System (NHS) – London Deanery, London, UK