Three doctors from Rambam Health Care Campus were featured on a list of the “Country’s Doctors 2022”, a joint project between Israeli news website “Ice” and the Israeli Medical Association to recognize Israel’s most valued physicians, as selected by the patient population.
Three Rambam doctors—Professor Mogher Khamaisi, Director of the Department of Internal Medicine D; Dr. Noa Lavi, Director of the Myeloma Service in the Department of Hematology; and Dr. Ido Solt, Director of Rambam’s Mrs. Edith and Professor Dov Katz Maternal and Fetal Medicine Unit, made the “Country’s Doctors 2022” list. The list recognizes those Israeli doctors who have received the greatest numbers of thank you letters and testimonials from patients over the past year.
During the course of an interview, each doctor was asked why they chose to practice medicine. Here are their answers.
Professor Mogher Khamaisi, Director of the Department of Internal Medicine D
"For as long as I can remember, I wanted to be a doctor – my parents and everyone around me knew it was my vocation. Over the years, this dream took second place after studying biology and scientific research. While working towards my Master’s degree in biology, I was given the opportunity to be a “practice patient” for first-year medical students. As a result, my dream to be a doctor returned and became a priority, and I chose to study medicine, in parallel with my entire research track and a PhD in biology.
Throughout my difficult medical studies and pursuit of two degrees, I always asked myself ‘why do I need this? Can I be a researcher or a teacher at the university?’ After specializations in internal medicine and endocrinology as well as a postdoctoral fellowship, I traveled to the United States for research and clinical training. During these years, my desire to become a clinician finally took shape. I was already very advanced in my research, with my own laboratory and an academic appointment at the Technion, a job and an academic appointment at Harvard University, and tempting offers from pharma companies to work in the United States. I finally realized that my destiny was to be a doctor-clinician first, and only then a researcher.
I wanted to be a doctor-clinician – someone who sees the patient as a whole, talks to them, understands them, examines them, and tries in every way to help them. After about six years in the US, I returned to Israel to embrace the world of internal medicine and a leadership role in working with patients. I thank the Creator of the world who made me a doctor."
Dr. Noa Lavi, Director of the Myeloma Service in the Department of Hematology
“I have tried many times to understand why I chose to practice medicine. For years, I thought I might have chosen medicine to fulfill the plans of my brother Hagai, who dreamed, among other things, of becoming a doctor and did not get to fulfill his dream. However, I searched and found my high school yearbook where my friends wrote to me that ‘we would meet up at the health clinic.’ While growing up, I think the education I received at home and the overall atmosphere focused on the importance of helping and giving to others. In the military, I somehow found myself in the field of computer programming. My dad was very happy I was there because it reassured him that I would be without financial worries, but a few years in programming made me realize that I wanted to work with people.
Over the years, the question that often came to mind was not why I chose medicine, for it seems clear to me, but why I chose hematology – a challenging and fascinating profession, but one with a lot of sorrow and pain. Why did I not choose a happier profession? One that was less demanding? While I was still doing my internship, a doctor who worked with me explained, ‘This is your vocation. You didn’t choose it, but this is where you should be’. And it's so true – this is definitely my place.”
Dr. Ido Solt, Director of Rambam’s Mrs. Edith and Professor Dov Katz Maternal and Fetal Medicine Unit
“After challenging military service as a medic treating many wounded soldiers in Lebanon, I felt that medicine was a vocation for me. However, at this point I was absolutely certain that I would choose the field of trauma, surgery, and intensive care.
During my medical studies, when I was exposed to the specialty of obstetrics, I immediately fell in love with it and realized that this was my true destiny – the miracle of bringing life into the world and its incomprehensible complexities, as well as the fact that in maternal and fetal medicine we are faced with two, three, four, or even five patients in a single body, the body of the mother.
In other areas of medicine, decision making is very simple in our eyes because one has to decide what is best for the patient. In our specialty, there is a built-in conflict of interest between patients in the same body, to the point of life-or-death decisions where the life of the mother always takes priority over the lives of the fetuses. When it comes to choosing between fetuses, we are sometimes faced with impossible ethical dilemmas."