The Technion’s story has been intertwined with Israel’s for more than a century, from laying the foundations for a new nation to shaping its future.
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Children and teenagers with pneumonia seem to spend less time in hospital if they are visited by a medical clown, who helps to reduce their heart rates and encourage independence. Visits from a medical clown, who may help children role-play or distract them during treatments, have previously been linked to reduced stress and anxiety among young people in hospital. Now, Karin Yaacoby-Bianu at the Carmel Medical Center in Haifa, Israel, and her colleagues have specifically studied their effect among children who were hospitalised with pneumonia, which is inflammation of the lungs. The team randomly assigned 26 children and teenagers, aged…
Two health institutions in the United States have added an Israeli wearable device to their roster of treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder. The FDA-approved Prism device – an electrodes-laden cap that fits snugly over the head – was developed by GrayMatters Health, a Haifa-based company that develops digital training therapies to help the brain regulate mental health care. Home Base, the largest private US clinic of its kind treating veterans and service members, is adding Prism to its existing PTSD programs at the National Center of Excellence in Charlestown, Massachusetts, while New York-based Fermata interventional psychiatry practice is offering the…
With the strict laws limiting human rights for asylum-seeking refugees, this story illustrates how volunteers can use their professional skills to provide essential services for these refugees. Artie Jacobowitz made aliyah with his wife, Karen, in January this year. They have two sons and four grandchildren living in the US. Artie lost no time as a retired biomedical equipment engineer in searching for volunteer work. He contacted the Yahel Social Change Fellowship, which matches volunteers and their skills with the needs of the local communities. And indeed, there was a great need for Artie’s professional skills at Ruach Hadashah, a…
A hunch by a respected Israeli biochemist about a molecule found in papaya has opened the door to revolutionize the treatment for metabolic and respiratory disorders, including cystic fibrosis (CF) in children. Inspired by the hunch, Israeli biotech startup ODE Pharma was founded with the mission of developing safe and cost-effective treatments for children suffering from the genetic disease. CF is caused by a defective gene that makes the body produce thick and sticky mucus in the lungs and other organs, which leads to a variety of serious lifelong issues, including chronic respiratory problems and recurrent lung infections. There is…
A new Israeli study has determined that processed food is not bad for us – despite its long-standing poor reputation – and with the right addition of proteins can actually give our bodies a boost. Processed food is actually a blanket description for any foods that have been changed in some way during their preparation. This could be drying, preserving (which is what we usually think of when we hear the term) or even cooking itself. And while we imagine processed foods to be ones that have undergone a more drastic treatment like breakfast cereal, ready meals, canned meat or…
The oldest and leading Arab-owned med-tech company in Israel started in a city in the Israeli periphery known more as Jesus’s hometown than a high-tech hub. But for Reem Younis, 59, who grew up in a working-class Christian family in Nazareth, there was no better location to found what has become a giant in Israel’s med-tech industry. In 1993, alongside her husband, Imad, she established Alpha Omega, one of the world’s top manufacturers of electrodes and other medical devices that record the activity of neurons from within the brain. Today, researchers and neurosurgeons worldwide use Alpha Omega equipment to guide…
In the time it takes to read this article, several people in the United States will likely experience a heart attack — according to the CDC, someone in the US suffers from one every 40 seconds. That morbid statistic highlights the importance of coronary artery disease detection methods, and companies developing them. One such company is Israeli startup AccuLine, which recently secured $4.2 million in seed funding for the development and commercialization of its CORA (Coronary Artery Risk Assessment) system, designed to improve the early detection of coronary artery disease (CAD), a leading cause of heart attacks. CORA detects two…
An estimated 225 million people around the world today wear a smartwatch, using it to keep track of text messages, emails and even how many steps they have taken. And now, thanks to software created by an Israeli startup and the little sensor on the device itself, smartwatch owners can also keep track of their emotional wellbeing, including stress levels, anxiety and amount of sleep they are getting. NeuroBrave co-founder and CEO Dror Talisman tells NoCamels that the startup’s NeuroSpeed AI analysis software takes data about the user’s blood flow gathered by the photoplethysmogram (PPG) sensor on the back of…
An Israeli startup has developed a non-surgical device to help prevent preterm births (PTB) – babies born before completing 37 weeks of gestation. PregnanTech says that 1 in 10 babies are born preterm, which translates to 15 million global births each year. And according to the World Health Organization, complications from preterm birth are the leading cause of death among children under the age of 5 years. The Lioness device developed by PregnanTech is a silicon ring that is placed around the cervix by a physician in what the company says is a quick, non-surgical procedure. According to PregnanTech, the…
There’s a common situation that occurs during a doctor’s visit. The patient comes in with an ailment, perhaps it’s a cough, a congested chest or ear ache. The doctor raises possibilities of what could be causing the sickness – pneumonia, strep throat, an ear infection and so on. Chests are listened to, ears are examined, noses are swabbed and some tests are sent off to the lab. In the meantime, as the results may take days to come in, the doctor recommends that the patient get started on a round of antibiotics, making an educated guess to diagnose a possible…
“Stay positive,” we’re told when suffering from an illness. It’s easy to dismiss such comments as platitudes from well-meaning friends. But Technion scientists have demonstrated that activation of the brain’s reward system can boost recovery from a heart attack. Establishing the connection between the two can potentially lead to therapeutic avenues for intervention. “It’s time that both researchers and clinicians take the link between psychology and physiology seriously,” said Technion Associate Professor Asya Rolls, a psychoneuroimmunologist and pioneer in mind-body interactions. Scientists have previously shown that the emotional state can influence the course of disease following a heart attack. But…
Modern medicine allows people to live longer and better, but with these life-enhancing therapies comes a risk of what clinicians call an adverse drug reaction (ADR) and laymen know as side effects. This is especially the case with polypharmacy (when patients take five or more drugs at the same time), says Liat Primor, veteran of the pharmaceutical industry and CEO and co-founder of FeelBetter, a startup dedicated to improving outcomes for patients taking multiple medications. “Sometimes patients have not only one condition, they have plenty – 10 or 15 – and they take so many medications,” Primor tells NoCamels. “They…