From Emergency to Renewal: A Medical System’s Path Forward After October 7

Straight from Gidon Melmed, executive director of the Hadassah Offices in Israel, comes a year-end update on the Hadassah Medical Organization (HMO).Melmed first reflects on HMO’s initial response to the October 7, 2023, massacre, which included establishing an underground emergency hospital and accelerating the opening of the Gandel Rehabilitation Center at Hadassah Mount Scopus Hospital.Now, two years later, he says, “There’s a very significant kind of fragility to the ceasefire at the moment, but for so many, the journey of recovery and healing has only really just begun.”Melmed speaks about overcoming the challenge of losing a significant number of Hadassah medical staff to reserve duty while continuing day-to-day operations, likening the situation to Henrietta Szold rising to the challenge and filling a need. It is the “spirit of Hadassah,” he says.Hadassah hospitals now serve 1.2 million patients annually, a significant increase over last year, according to Melmed. Surgery, research, and innovation are all ongoing.In terms of innovation and research, Melmed discusses work in breast cancer and in neurology and dementia, as well as the use of organoids, surgical robots, and augmented reality, which Melmed says Hadassah hospitals are seeing the first implementation of. “It’s an amazing tool that is very exciting because it means we’re conducting a greater degree of certain accuracy in our surgery and operations.”“Hadassah On Call: New Frontiers in Medicine” is a production of Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America. Hadassah enhances the health of people around the world through medical education, care, and research innovations at the Hadassah Medical Organization. For more information on the latest advances in medicine, please visit hadassah.org.