Forum: Israeli Medical Schools Forum Location: Israel Time required for MD: 4 Years Student Loans: Stafford Loans and others Tuition: $22,000 per year Year Founded: 1964 Email: Email Sackler Sackler School of Medicine 17 East 62nd Street New York, New York 10021 Survey: Sackler Medical School review

A Brief History of Israel by The World Factbook 2005

Following World War II, the British withdrew from their mandate of Palestine, and the UN partitioned the area into Arab and Jewish states, an arrangement rejected by the Arabs. Subsequently, the Israelis defeated the Arabs in a series of wars without ending the deep tensions between the two sides. The territories occupied by Israel since the 1967 war are not included in the Israel country profile, unless otherwise noted. On 25 April 1982, Israel withdrew from the Sinai pursuant to the 1979 Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty. Israel and Palestinian officials signed on 13 September 1993 a Declaration of Principles (also known as the "Oslo accords") guiding an interim period of Palestinian self-rule. Read More

Tel Aviv University’s Medical School was established in 1964. In 1972, the school was officially named the Sackler School of Medicine and moved into a new two-story building. Today, the Faculty consists of four schools: Medicine, Dental Medicine, Continuing Medical Education, and Health Professions (physical therapy, occupational therapy, communication disorders and nursing).

Many Sackler physicians have won international reputations for their research and clinical work in their specialties. Equally as many participate in projects with the National Institutes of Health and other prestigious organizations, and with prominent institutes and universities throughout the world.

The Sackler School of Medicine has ten preclinical and 19 clinical departments. It offers programs leading to the M.D. degree, and to M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in various medical and health sciences. More than 600 Israeli students are enrolled in the Tel Aviv University Sackler School of Medicine M.D. program.

On a parallel track, approximately 300 students are enrolled in the New York State/American Program, which is specifically for medical students from the United States. Created in 1976, this unique program is taught entirely in English. Its curriculum and teaching methods are modeled after those of U.S. medical schools. Classes are small. Classroom, laboratory and clinical sessions are supplemented by self-study and by tutoring and seminars in small groups. The four-year course of study is spent at the Tel Aviv University-Sackler School of Medicine and its affiliated hospital departments.

Teaching institutions whose departments are affiliated with Sackler include seven major medical centers, six psychiatric hospitals, 20 research institutes and a large rehabilitation center.

The Tel Aviv University Sackler School of Medicine New York State/American Program is fully recognized and approved by the State of Israel, and is listed in the World Health Organization’s World Directory of Medical Schools. Tel Aviv University Sackler School of Medicine New York State/American Program is chartered by the Regents of the University of the State of New York. This program is one of only two in the world recognized outside of the United States that is registered by the University of the State of New York/State Education Department. It is not accredited by the private U.S. professional agency in the field of medical education, the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (constituted by the American Medical Association and the Association of American Medical Colleges); LCME policy is to accredit only U.S. and Canadian medical schools. The New York State Education Department reported that the program “meets or exceeds accepted standards of academic quality.”

It is the goal of a Sackler education to provide medical graduates with an exceptional academic foundation in the science of human disease and with the clinical skills to translate this knowledge into accurate diagnoses and treatment. Equally as important, the program at Sackler strives to cultivate and nurture in its graduates the qualities that foster an empathic, ethical doctor-patient relationship. Graduating physicians are encouraged to foster their own career-long commitment to professional self-assessment and continuing education in order to keep abreast of the rapid changes in medicine.

	Like many other medical schools around the world, the Sackler School of Medicine is undergoing a major reform of both the content and methods of teaching of the curriculum. One of the aims of the new program is to prepare our future doctors to be able to cope with the explosive growth of knowledge (currently doubling every 30 months) and with the availability of information through the Internet. In the new curriculum, the student is put in the center, and will be trained in the skills that will enable him or her to be responsible for acquiring knowledge independently. Students will learn the skills and acquire the habits of critical thinking, the basis of evidence-based medicine. In addition, the new curriculum stresses the integration of clinical and basic knowledge and a systematic approach to solving medical problems. Equal importance is given to teaching the humanitarian attitude towards the patient and his or her needs. Strengthening the contact between the physician and the medical world and the patient and his social world is accomplished through a program denoted MPS ( Medicine-Patient-Society). This program, composed of a series of interrelated courses trains the medical student to combine the bio-medical aspects of health and disease with mental , ethical and social issues. These skills and concepts will be required for the future physician while treating the patient and the patient's family. The new curriculum combines teaching the disciplines of Ethics, Anthropology, History and Philosophy along with practicing and exercising important medical skills, as well as early exposure to clinical problems at the very first stages of the medical experience of the student in our school. Medical education, being a very demanding discipline, is clearly influenced by changes in teaching methods. The modern approach in medical education is integrative, employing an inter-disciplinary study of the systems. This method requires teaching in small groups and the main role of the teacher has become one of facilitation. Thus, the main effort is put into self-study based on well-planned and well-prepared syllabi. This method of teaching will be utilized throughout the student's studies. The number of frontal lectures has been decreased and students have to assume responsibility to be prepared for these small study groups. This pedagogical attitude demands a considerable degree of independent thinking and self-study by the student. Therefore the School provides students with preclinical and clinical advisors, who serve as role models for the students and aid them in solving he problems and dilemmas that invariably arise. World-wide, clinical teaching is gradually shifting from in-hospital to ambulatory settings. Our students also perform more of their clinical training in out-patient clinics than students have in the past. Special emphasis is given to tutoring and monitoring students clinical performance, improving their interpersonal skills, teaching them to communicate with patients effectively and with sensitivity. A Clinical Skills laboratory has been recently created (in Sheba Medical Center) to allow students the opportunity to be taught clinical skills utilizing simulated patients, computer simulations, sophisticated animated models and other modern techniques. Students will follow their own progress in acquiring clinical skills throughout their medical training aided by a clinical skills checklist. Another important way of advancing the skills of critical thinking, which we consider the basis of evidence-based medicine is through the technique of PBL (Problem Based Learning) where the principal weigh and emphasis is once again put on independent learning by the student and understanding of clinical procedures. The student has to understand, not only memorize, the fundamental knowledge in order to analyze and mange the clinical cases presented to him. We are confident that the new curriculum will train young physicians who will be prepared to practice scientific and humane medicine and who will be prepared to meet the challenges of practicing medicine in the new millennium.

• Identification of several hereditary diseases in the fields of purine metabolism, calcium metabolism and blood coagulation
• Discovery of important physiological properties of the vasoactive intestinal peptide
• Significant contributions in the field of in vitro fertilization
• Identification of the Laron syndrome (a type of dwarfism, named for the Sackler scientist who first described it)
• Advances in the treatment of familial Mediterranean fever