December 2022 - Ausimed

2022 Lewin COVID-19 Research & Public Health Delegation to Israel

Australia and Israel are strategic partners in trade, culture and health. In the wake of COVID-19, AUSiMED recognised an opportunity to distil and exchange the lessons learnt by Australia and Israel in their response to the pandemic. In September 2022, a high-level Delegation of Australian public health officials and expert scientists participated in a COVID[1]19 Learning Exchange Mission to Israel. The mission was organised by AUSiMED with the active support of the Israel Embassy in Canberra.

The delegation was led by Professor Sharon Lewin AO, Director of the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity and Co-Chair of the National COVID-19 Health and Research Advisory Council (NCHRAC).

During the 5-day visit the delegation met with many of Israel’s top public health officials and practitioners to develop person-to-person networks between Australia and Israel and inform ongoing management of the COVID-19 pandemic and potentially other infectious diseases going forward.

The Lewin COVID-19 Delegation was hugely successful on a range of important dimensions while also meeting AUSiMED’s mission of enhancing global health outcomes through engagement between Australia and Israel. A number of opportunities for future collaboration were identified during and following the mission, including:

A very exciting opportunity for the Royal Flying Doctors Service to trial an Israeli device enabling one of the major barriers to use of telehealth (being the inability to physically examine the patient) to be largely overcome;

Further engagement between Australian and Israeli data modelling experts regarding systems and approaches to data linkage, machine learning, and predictive algorithms; and

Opportunities for new AUSiMED fellowships in several areas.

Introducing AUSiMED's 2022 Lowy Paediatric Fellows

Dr Nir Samuel (AUSiMED Fellow) with Prof Mark Fitzgerald and Dr Danny Ben-Eli (Trauma Service, Alfred Health, and NTRI)

Two Israeli paediatricians, Dr Nir Samuel and Dr Clair Habib, began their AUSiMED Fellowships in 2022.

Nir is training Paediatric Trauma Care at the Alfred Hospital Trauma Services and the Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH) in Melbourne. Upon returning to Israel in early 2023, Nir is expecting to take on the Trauma Lead of Paediatric Emergency Department.

Dr Clair Habib (AUSiMED Fellow) and Dr Karen Teshuva (AUSiMED National Program Director)

Clair is receiving research and clinical training in neuro-genetics at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and RCH. Upon returning to Israel in September 2023, Clair is expecting to take on a senior role as a paediatric neuro-geneticist at Rambam Health Care Campus. Both Fellowships were made possible by the generous support of the Lowy Foundation.