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Rambam Scales Summit

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The interconnectedness of Medicine, Technology and Humanity was the focus on June 10th at the first international Rambam Summit.

The day featured high-powered academic discourse, after which participants moved from the Rambam campus on the Mediterranean Seashore up to the Dan Carmel Hotel at the summit of Mount Carmel for a gala honoring Rambam Award 2010 recipients.

The event was the brainchild of Mr. Adam Emmerich, President of American Friends of Rambam Medical Center (AFORAM). The idea was warmly received by Prof. Rafi Beyar, Director General of Rambam, whose signature concerns were written all over the final product: putting patients first, and promoting creative partnerships across disciplines.

L to R: Rambam Summit panel participants Mr. Peter Kash, President, Two River Group; Ms. Jami Rubin, Senior Healthcare and Pharmaceutical Analyst, Goldman Sachs; and Dr. Yuval Binur, Managing General Partner, Accelerated Technologies Partners, LLC.
Photo credit: Pioter Fliter

"The genome is not the [ultimate] source of our information because there is the epigenome; there are levels of complexity," cautioned the basso profondo voice of 2004 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry Prof. Aaron Ciechanover, Chair of Rambam's Scientific Advisory Board.
The occasion was the Rambam Summit, whose morning session was devoted to exploring the role of drug and medical-device R&D in the advancement of medicine, and the socioeconomic and ethical implications of medical progress.

Mr. Yakov Litzman, Deputy Minister of Health, presenting his speech at the Rambam Summit.
Photo credit: Pioter Fliter

Prof. Ciechanover established the framework for discussion by identifying three modern revolutions in drug development: the era of incidental discoveries such as antibiotics (1930s-1960s), the era of brute-force screening of large libraries of chemical compounds such as statins (1970s-2000), and the current era of personalized medicine using such targeted molecules as Herceptin.

Ms. Jami Rubin, Senior Healthcare and Pharmaceutical Analyst at Goldman Sachs, conceded that the pharmaceutical industry is struggling to move from the second era into the third, and predicted that by 2014, seven of the top ten drugs in the market will be biotech devices. New York-based entrepreneur Dr. Yuval Binur forecast that medical devices will bridge the healthcare gap with cheaper and less invasive treatments. Israeli health policymaker Dr. Ran Balicer asked the audience to imagine a future in which medicine will have moved from bedside care to e-medicine and telemedicine provided via virtual consultations and mentored by health coaches.

"Personalized medicine is the biggest revolution in healthcare since vaccines," declared entrepreneur Mr. Uzia Galil, "but it can be applied to the patient only if we put together the information technology and software and make them accessible to the general practitioner." Prof. Beyar commented that for this to happen, funding mechanisms are needed. Mr. Gavriel Meron, Founder and CEO Emeritus of Given Imaging Ltd, spoke of developed countries' thirst for innovative and effective healthcare solutions, which, he said, can be supplied by Israel and thereby strengthen the national economy.

Prof. Karl Skorecki, Director of Medical and Research Development at Rambam and of the Rappaport Research Institute, introducing himself as a Trekkie, thrilled Summit attendees with news that the Jewish genome has been mapped for the first time -- and by an international team led by Rambam Medical Center and Technion researchers! That very day, the landmark findings had been published in the prestigious journal Nature and announced on the front pages of Haaretz and The New York Times.