Azrieli Faculty of Medicine Students Assist the City of Nazareth in Coping with COVID-19

Date: 2020-09-10 Hour: 14:07

Uniquely positioned within the Galilee healthcare ecosystem, Bar-Ilan University’s Azrieli Faculty of Medicine earlier this year created, together with its affiliated hospitals, primary care clinics, local NGOs, and with the support of The Russell Berrie Foundation, a new bio-psycho-social-health platform to address the unique needs of the region during COVID-19, while teaching and training its students.  

As part of this project, dozens of Azrieli Faculty medical students were placed in Maccabi and Clalit Healthcare Service clinics in Arab and Jewish towns throughout the northern and western Galilee regions.  They have provided much-needed assistance with day-to-day operations to medical professionals whose workload has overwhelmingly increased since the onset of COVID-19.

The city of Nazareth has been particularly hard-hit by the recent upsurge in coronavirus cases in Israel. Many medical personnel either tested positive for the virus or are under quarantine. At the request of Dr. Youssef Awni, a member of the Azrieli Faculty who also directs the Nazareth Towers Medical Center and serves as deputy director of the northern district of Clalit Health Services, the medical students immediately stepped up to the plate to help the city cope with the crisis. Under the guidance of Dr. Sivan Spitzer-Shohat, Head of Population Health Education and Principal Investigator of the Health Equity Advancement Lab (HEAL) at the Azrieli Faculty who is leading the project, the students are assisting in improving awareness and adherence of the population to COVID-19 guidelines through special community kits that include disposable masks, thermometer and information pamphlets in Arabic, conducting home visits and volunteering at primary care clinics around the city.