As many of you know, The Medical Group has been working tirelessly to uplift our families at home in Palestine by supporting health care delivery and implementation in many different fields. To date, some of our most successful projects include an emergency medical program, a vascular health outreach project, and a women’s health center.
In the near future, we hope to expand our efforts and launch many exciting new ventures, including a telehealth program that will allow us to continue this vital work even as COVID makes travel a challenge. I am sure you can imagine how much support this will require. We are so fortunate to have this vital, philanthropic-minded community as our best resource, and as such, we are asking you to reach out to the Federation leadership if you are able to offer your assistance in any way. We are searching for volunteer physicians, nurses, and technicians, as well as fundraising and donation support.
Please do not hesitate to contact us to learn more about the details of our work and to join us to improve the health and future of our beloved homeland.
With our best wishes for your continued good health,
The Medical Group Team
UPDATES
The medical group, working to assist the Palestinian people with health care needs, has been active for decades. The good news is that over time, it has increased the number of volunteers and in services, especially in the last few years. The medical group, which used to be known as the medical mission, has transitioned from its primary objective of performing simple hands-on medical work, to a much broader goal of training local health care providers and supplying them with much-needed medical equipment. During the pandemic, the group has done a great job, with the help of generous donors, to supply Palestine with PPE’s, oxygen concentrators, ICU monitors, and many other essential supplies geared at helping with the crunch of the pandemic. Currently, the group does all of the above with the addition of taking on projects that continue to add value to the quality of health care in Palestine. Currently, there are multiple projects that are at different stages of implementation:
- The Vascular Health Project: this project aims to lessen the impact of cardiovascular disease, which is the leading cause of illness and death in Palestine. It includes education and awareness, an ultrasound-based vascular lab to detect health-related problems like carotid artery and peripheral artery diseases, as well as abdominal aneurysms and venous clots. It also includes a vascular catheterization lab to diagnose and treat the full spectrum of arterial and venous diseases. This project will help decrease the level of strokes, heart attacks, limb loss, kidney failure, blood clots, and leg ulcers. This project is already funded and in progress. It is expected to be functional sometime in the summer of 2022 inshallah.
- Woman’s Health: this is a very ambitious project aimed at diagnosis, early detection, and treatment of several diseases that are currently hampered by lack of awareness, cultural taboos, and lack of attention and of finances. It includes state-of-the-art mammogram equipment, automated breast biopsy units, colposcopy, fetal monitors, and ultrasound-based pelvic diagnosis equipment.
Projects in the process of being funded:
- Pathology/ telepathology project: This project is linked to women’s health but also aimed at improving pathology services for all of Palestine. It includes state-of-the-art and best available digital microscopes, a slide scanner with automated interpretation capabilities and slide preparation station, and digitizing capabilities to transmit and receive images. There is the promise to fund this project linked to women’s health. The equipment is already identified and in the process of being purchased as part of the women’s health project.
- Pulmonary Function Laboratory: This service is painfully lacking in Palestine. It is essential for many reasons, not the least of which is lung surgery. It is linked to both women’s health and the vascular project in that there is a sharp increase in women smoking cigarettes and hookah, this causes an increase in lung cancer and Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), long identified as men’s disease only. This project funding is linked to the women’s health and vascular disease projects. It will also be linked to an aggressive national smoking cessation campaign.
- Building project: There is funding directed to add to the current Ramallah Hospital structure with space to host the women’s project amongst other things. Building plans and bids are in progress.
- Telemedicine: This is an ongoing project that links our specialists to health care providers for advice and direction. It is very active in the fields of Intensive care, emergency medicine, and vascular surgery. The group hopes to build on this activity and expand it to other specialties.
- Renal dialysis: This is an ongoing project assisting local care providers to provide the most progressive means to perform dialysis, by creating appropriate shunts and following evidence-based protocols.
- Pulmonary function lab: This service is very rarely available to the patients at the Ramallah hospital. Lung resection surgery is being done without it. This project will hopefully rectify a dangerous situation.
- Peritoneal dialysis project: This project will give patients a chance to avoid more risky hemp dialysis in some cases. The service is currently not available at the Ramallah hospital.
- Future projects: Helping the Palestinian community in the diaspora with evidence-based and peer-reviewed health care information, by direct contact or through the Hathihe Ramallah Magazine. This can be done by contacting the magazine with needs and questions, and the answers will be provided by specialists in the field. This service will be for information only. The group hopes to publish current and relevant health care segments on issues that benefit everyone.
- Funds to help attract qualified experts to run all these projects are needed as well. Please help this group with recruiting health care providers who may be interested to serve. We humbly ask that you keep this medical group in your prayers.