MDA israel

The past president of the American Heart Association (AHA), Dr. Michelle A. Albert, came to visit MDA accompanied by her husband – Ed and Glenn Vanden Houten, the AHA's regional director, at the organization's National Integrated Operations Center in Kiryat Ono and the MDA's brand new protected national blood bank located in the city of Ramle.

Dr. Albert was still the president of the AHA during her visit at Magen David Adom and she ended her term just a few weeks ago, on June 30^th 2023.

In addition to her role as past president of the American Heart Association, Dr. Michelle A. Albert holds prestigious positions at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) as a professor of medicine, including dean of admissions to the medical school and Director of the Center of Adversity and Cardiovascular Disease (NURTURE Center). Dr. Albert, cardiologist and researcher with a specialization in health equity and innovative approaches to cardiovascular diseases, has many awards and grants for her research, serves on national committees and advisory committees, is recognized for her many advocacy efforts and professional achievements.

During the visit to MDA's National Operations Center, Uri Shaham, chief of staff at MDA's Director General's office, reviewed the activities of Magen David Adom, Israel's National Emergency Medical Service, and presented her with the activities of MDA's 101 emergency call center- which provides lifesaving telephone guidance in the first moments and instructs the callers on the use of a defibrillator by laymen, the organization's medical control center and also explained how rapid first response units are launched in medical emergencies, with an emphasis on cardiac and resuscitation events. Dr. Albert was very impressed by the therapeutic and technological capabilities that the organization has developed and implemented and by the chain of response to emergencies which is based on a large number of circuits of medical responders at different levels of treatment integrated at the same time - to shorten response times.

At the end of the tour of MDA's national integrated operations center, the past president of the American Heart Association and the members of the delegation went to the MDA campus in Ramla, where they met Ariela Mirovsky - the daughter of Dr. Michel Mirovsky who developed an implantable automatic defibrillator as a life-saving treatment in the early 1980s, and Prof. Eilat Shinar, MDA Deputy Director General of Blood Services, whom conducted a review on the subject of blood donations, the treatment procedure for each unit of blood, as well as the structure of MDA's brand new and protected national blood bank.

For the past 15 years, MDA has served as an international training center for the American Heart Association for the purpose of training the medical teams within the State of Israel. As part of the cooperation between the organizations, MDA led and continues to lead projects in the fields of training in order to make treatment, training and life-saving knowledge accessible to all residents of the State of Israel.

Dr. Albert and the members of the American Heart Association delegation also met MDA youth volunteers from the MDA's Lod station, who explained their activities in the organization for the patients as well as for the community. At the end of the meeting, a tour was conducted of the blood bank for special blood types as well as the MDA maternal milk bank, the members of the delegation were shown different types of rescue vehicles and special tools used by Magen David Adom teams to save lives both routinely and in national emergencies.

Past President of the American Heart Association Dr. Albert: "My visit to Magen David Adom was really amazing. I want to thank you all for the efforts you put into making this visit an amazing one. The union sees great importance in placing defibrillators in the public space, a very important element in the rescue chain. We are happy to continue the cooperation and support their placement. I thank all of you for the many efforts, especially in the last 3 years for improving and making the rescue chain more accessible.''

MDA Deputy Director General Blood Services, Prof. Eilat Shinar: "We thank the past president of the American Heart Association for coming with the members of the delegation to visit MDA and the blood services. We had the opportunity to present to the members of the union the innovative and protected blood bank of the blood services of MDA and the State of Israel."

MDA Deputy Director General of Community Dr. Eli Jaffe: "The long-standing collaboration between MDA and the American Heart Association continues to deepen. Besides being a professional body, we see the members of the association as friends, colleagues and partners in the vision of making life-saving knowledge and tools accessible to the entire population I would like to thank the past president of the American Heart Association Dr. Michelle A. Albert, her husband Ed and our friend Glenn Van Houten for an enriching, educational and in-depth visit."