U.S. and Israel to Expand Exchange of Scientific Data and Personnel

The United States and Israel are exploring ways to expand existing agreements between their governments on the exchange of information and personnel in the fields of science, medical care and social welfare programs, according to Undersecretary of Health and Human Services Don Newman.

Newman, who recently returned from Israel where he represented Human Services Secretary Otis Bowen, held talks with Israeli officials on the expansion of two memoranda of agreement which provide for cooperation between Israel and the U.S. on issues of health care and human welfare services.

The agreement on medical care, now four years old, “identifies several areas of mutual interest” between the U.S. and Israel, Newman said, including health manpower and services, health services research, information systems, public health, biomedical research and related areas such as food and drugs.

BROAD SPECTRUM OF COOPERATIVE ACTIVITIES

The Undersecretary said the second memorandum of agreement, approved in 1985, “covers areas of cooperative activities and interest” in a broad spectrum of social welfare programs ranging from community in-home services for the physically impaired and research on social indicators to housing for the aged and juvenile delinquency.

“These agreements reflect a close relationship of 20 years’ standing,” Newman said, “and we are eager to maintain and to strengthen that relationship.”

Newman said a recent tour of the Medical Center and meetings with Hadassah Medical Organization director-general Samuel Penchas and other key members of the medical staff “gave impetus to our desire to see these agreements expanded.”

Newman indicated the U.S. has a special interest in the youth project — called “Youth 2000” — which encompasses government programs dealing with teenage pregnancies, drug abuse, fetal alcohol syndrome, underweight newborn babies and AIDS.

He also cited an innovative program in Israel in which developmentally disabled children and adults are trained to work on kibbutzim. He said he was impressed with the results achieved by encouraging the developmentally disabled to work in, and develop a relationship with, the soil.

Newman, who met with Israel Minister of Health Shoshana Arbeli-Almoslino during his recent visit, said the U.S. is interested in enlarging the scope of health care statistics and methodology currently exchanged by the two countries and in expanding cooperative activities in areas such as medical technology, a drug reaction registry, laboratory practices and biomedical research.