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

The Technion American Medical Students (TEAMS) Program offers an excellent unique opportunity for qualified U.S. or Canadian pre-med college graduates, who wish to pursue a career as a physician, to continue their studies for the M.D. degree in the Ruth & Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel.

The program began in 1983. All of the hundreds of graduates have successfully passed the licensing exams to return to the U.S.A. or Canada. All graduates have been accepted for residency positions, including amongst the prestigious specialties and subspecialties. The program couples a strong curriculum in basic medical sciences at a world-class technological institute with clinical education at some of the finest medical centers in the country. Studying in Israel considerably enriches the medical school learning experience.

The Ruth & Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, founded in 1969, is just one of 20 faculties and departments of the Technion. As an integral part of Israel's only institute of technology, the medical faculty is uniquely positioned to take advantage of the most up-to-date technology in all major fields of science and engineering and to educate a highly skilled, technologically oriented physician. The technion has ongoing collaboration agreements with premiere institutions in the world in the field of Medicine and Bio-Medical Engineering. One such agreement with Johns Hopkins University has recently been signed and is actively advancing.

The Faculty of Medicine is housed in the Rappaport Building, located at the end of Efron Street in Bat-Galim, Haifa, next to the Rambam Medical Center, on the Mediterranean shore. The main Technion campus is located in Neve Sha'anan, Haifa and is the home of other Technion faculties and departments. The Faculty of Medicine serves as the academic core for the study of medicine in northern Israel. It contains the basic science research laboratories and the preclinical teaching departments, which include biochemistry, physiology, biophysics, immunology, pharmacology, microbiology, anatomy and other morphological sciences, as well as teaching labs, the central medical library, seminar rooms, and lecture halls. Clinical education and research take place in formally accredited clinical departments of three affiliated medical centers in Haifa (Rambam Medical Center, Bnai Zion Medical Center, and Carmel Medical Center), and in additional affiliated centers in the nearby cities of Nahariya (Western Galilee Medical Center) , Afula (Haemek Medical Center), Safed (Ziv Hospital) , Tiberias (Poria Hospital) and Hadera (Hillel Jaffe Medical Center).

The M.D. degree program of the Faculty of Medicine of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology is fully accredited by the Israeli National Council for Higher Education and is listed in the Directory of Medical Programs of the World Health Organization. The student fulfills 36 months of study, as required from foreign (non-USA) medical school graduates in order to be licensed in the United States. Graduates of the Technion Faculty of Medicine who plan to return to the United States may participate in AMA-approved internship and residency programs upon certification by the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG), which is granted after passing parts I and II of the U.S. Medical Licensure Examination (USMLE).

• To train physicians who will have a general fundamental knowledge of medical science and practice on which to base future practice as primary care physicians, or in any of the specialties, or for a career in research.
• To provide the graduates with the knowledge, skills, and professional standards of behavior necessary for dealing with all aspects of medicine.
• To provide the students with an understanding of the health needs of the public and the importance of community and preventive medicine.
• To provide the students with sufficient background to aid and stimulate their continuous advancement, upon completion of studies, through self-instruction and postgraduate specialization programs.

The curriculum achieves these objectives by various methods, in some instances by organizing didactic material around multidisciplinary teaching units. For example, molecular genetics is taught by biochemists, geneticists, and cell biologists. Neurosciences are taught by the divisions of anatomy, histology and cell biology, physiology, and pharmacology. Topics in mathematics and physics are taught with pertinent medical courses: electricity with nerve conduction, the gas theories with the respiratory system, and hydrodynamics with the cardiovascular system. In other cases, subject matter is taught in the classical fashion. Instruction includes formal lectures, laboratory sessions, small-group conferences, review sessions, and exams following each segment of every course.

The curriculum emphasizes self-study, both as a means to supplement course material and as the basis for the ongoing development required of the practicing physician and scientist to keep abreast of the rapid changes in medicine. The curriculum emphasizes the behavioral sciences, in which students learn the various facets of the doctor-patient relationship and study the ethical aspects of medical practice. Preventive medicine and community public health services are stressed as major elements in health care.

The first two years of the program are dedicated to building a foundation in the sciences basic to the study of medicine. During the basic and the pre-clinical studies the students attend lectures and participate in small-group seminars, review sessions, and laboratory sessions. Emphasis is on individual performance of experiments, anatomic dissections, and pathology procedures designed to impart necessary skills and the scientific approach.

In the first half of the year the students are already exposed to the medical system recognizing various functions of the hospital. The clinical experience is combined with introduction to psychology and a course in emergency medicine.

The second year of the program includes mainly pre-clinical instruction in various courses listed below. During this year, students are also given the course Introduction to Clinical Medicine, which includes core lectures in all aspects of clinical medicine, and a course in Physical Diagnosis. The latter course emphasizes techniques of medical history taking and physical diagnosis. From the beginning of this year the students are already exposed to the medical system recognizing various functions of the hospital.

After ending the second year or during the middle of third year students take the USMLE Step 1 examination.

Clinical studies are conducted in the form of clerkships for small groups of students and are taken in the middle of the second year and the entire third and fourth years of study. The main emphasis is on clinical bedside teaching and tutoring in the affiliated teaching departments of hospitals, outpatient clinics, and primary care clinics. The students come in contact with patients, participate in clinical rounds and the decision-making process, acquire the skills of history-taking and physical diagnosis under the supervision of the teaching staff, and are exposed to the subspecialties and the ancillary diagnostic procedures carried out in laboratories and imaging facilities. Division chairmen allocate teaching departments for the academic year, and student groups are assigned to those departments.

Year Three of the program includes 42 weeks of instruction, a clinical rotation program, from September to July. All types of clinical activities take place in formally accredited clinical departments. The student will participate in a clinical rotation program similar to the program given to the Israeli Technion medical students; however, the clinical instruction will be given in English. During the third year the students will have to take and pass final exams in Pediatrics, Obstetric and Gynecology, and Neurology. The clinical courses taught in this year and in the fourth year are listed in the Table.

The fourth year of the program comprises 30 weeks of instruction, from September to the end of April. The student starts the year with 12 weeks of electives in Israel or in the USA. In addition, six clinical courses of two weeks each has to be chosen three from the list of subspecialties in surgery and three courses from the internal medicine subspecialties.