Rambam Health Care Campus is proud and honored to bestow the 2018 Rambam Award upon Professor Rafael (Rafi) Beyar in recognition of his medical, scientific, and entrepreneurial achievements in cardiology, his unwavering commitment to the betterment of humankind, and his visionary leadership to create the future of medicine at Rambam Health Care Campus for Israel and the world.
Professor Beyar is an internationally recognized physician scientist whose contributions to research, education, and clinical practice in interventional cardiology have been game changers. Born in 1952 in Israel, he was greatly influenced by his grandfather and father, the latter of whom was a doctor. Professor Beyar received his MO from Tel Aviv University, after which he served in the IOF as a battalion physician. He then pursued his Doctor of Science (OSc) from the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering, Technion-I IT. There he was deeply inspired by his mentor, Professor Samuel Sideman. Professor Beyar has also earned an MPH from the Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University.
Professor Beyar's innovative research led to the development of uniquely designed balloon expandable and self-expanding stents and robotic cardiac catheterization-EU and FDA approved and in use worldwide-and the founding of Corindus Vascular Robotics (2000) to develop and market the latter device.
As an educator, in 1995 he established both the prestigious annual international Innovations in Interventions (ICI) meetings and the ongoing Technion Johns Hopkins Collaboration Program in Biomedical Sciences and Engineering (2001). Professor Beyar served as the Dean of the Technion's Ruth and Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine from 1999 to 2005.
As Director of Rambam Health Care Campus during the 2006 Second Lebanon War, Professor Beyar successfully led the hospital staff in maintaining hospital activities while it was under fire, and paved the way for construction of the Sammy Ofer Fortified Underground Emergency Hospital to assure the safety of patients and staff-thereby establishing a new paradigm in hospital safety. Concomitantly, he led the hospital's West Campus development ensuring a long-term infrastructure for multidisciplinary clinical care and medical research for generations to come.
Professor Beyar has established multiple research programs, international collaborations, and cooperative efforts between multiple nations and Rambam, and spearheaded founding of Rambam MedTech and the first of a kind Mind Up digital health incubator. He has also has chaired key government committees, including the National Health Basket and Transplant Council, to assure quality health care in Israel.
A man of vision, his ability to inspire and lead others has led to his national recognition as a generational leader of Israeli medicine.
In acknowledgement of all the aforesaid, his colleagues at Rambam Health Care Campus have found Professor Rafael (Rafi) Beyar deserving of the 2018 Rambam Award.