Scientists and doctors from Israel, Egypt, and later, the United States, will unite in an effort to improve medical services throughout the Middle East in a new program started by Yeshiva University’s Albert Einstein Medical College, Dr. Norman Lamm, Yeshiva University president, announced today.
He said the new Camp David Institute for International Health, named in commemoration of the site of the negotiations leading to the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty, has been funded by anonymous $3 million gift in honor of President Carter, Premier Menachem Begin and President Anwar Sadat. Lame returned Dec. 20 from a trip to Israel and Egypt, where he met with Begin and with Hassan el-Kamel, chief of Sadat’s Cabinet. He said both expressed support for the Camp David Institute.
A spokesman for the university told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the first phase of the new program is underway with a committee which has started to screen applicants, whose names have been submitted by the Health Ministries of Israel and Egypt.
Dr. Barry Bloom, professor and chairman of the Albert Einstein Medical College, and director of the Institute, said that plans called for eight to 10 students annually in the Institute, starting next September. For the first few years, he said, all of the students will be Israelis and Egyptians and that, afterwards, consideration would be given to the medical college students.
WILL PROVIDE A UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY
Dr. Ephraim Friedman, dean of the medical college, said the Institute would provide a unique opportunity to apply the school’s “renowned” research and teaching programs to train students from Israel and Egypt to help them deal effectively with the major medical problems of their countries. He predicted that, “over the long run, the Institute will help ‘send’ various institutions in those countries with a care of bright, young, exceptionally well-trained scientists and investigators.” The Institute will be housed in the medical college in The Bronx, N.Y.
He said the medical college’s “particular expertise” in cancer research, cardiovascular research, diabetes research and aging, apply to conditions which are “universal” and of “major interest both to Israel and Egypt.” He said that the Institute also hoped to lay the basis for research in areas of interest of “particular importance” to Egypt and Israel. He cited “tropical and parasitic diseases, malnutrition and epidemiological methods for analyzing the health needs of the population.”
Young American and Egyptian students will train together at the medical college, later to be joined by American students, with an annual operating budget of $300,000 providing opportunities for about 24 graduate fellowships for students in doctoral studies, or for a variety of training arrangements, Bloom said. The JTA was told that the grant will cover all living expenses and tuition fees for the participating students. During the 10-year period over which the grant will be expended, some 100 scientists will receive their training. Bloom said the length of study will vary, depending on the student’s choice of courses, with a maximum of two years for post-doctoral participants.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
