Newswise — Two physicians—one Israeli, one Palestinian—are collaborating to improve the health of children in Israel and the West Bank, as well as other places around the world.
Dr. Hatim Omar, professor of pediatrics and obstetrics/gynecology, University of Kentucky College of Medicine and director of adolescent medicine and Young Parents Program at UK HealthCare's Kentucky Children's Hospital, is working with his friend, Dr. Joav Merrick, medical director, Israeli Ministry of Social Affairs, and founder of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development in Israel.During a recent visit between the two, the Lexington Herald-Leader featured the doctors in a story published Nov. 24, 2007.
"We both realize that we're not politicians and we can't change things politically," said Merrick. "But what we can do is work at the human level, and try to get as many people as possible working on the problem.""There are plenty of opportunities," said Omar. "You have lots of kids with disabilities from all of these bombings and attacks on both the Israeli side and the Palestinian side, and from the constant fear, which is common on both sides. We'd really like to find ways to help those kids who are injured or disabled, or who have lost their parents."
Both doctors have ambitious plans, being that they are from opposite sides of the Middle Eastern political divide. Their plans include a program that would bring one Israeli doctor and one Palestinian doctor to UK each year to study pediatrics and adolescent health. The hope is for those physicians to return home and share their knowledge with other doctors, who would reach out to still more, eventually creating a core of physicians on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian border working cooperatively to boost medical care for youngsters. Both think such efforts could in the long term help foster hopes for a better future for both Israelis and Palestinians and help bring peace closer.
In striving to become a Top 20 public research institution, the University of Kentucky is a catalyst for a new Commonwealth " a Kentucky that is healthier, better educated, and positioned to compete in a global and changing economy. For more information about UK's efforts to become a Top 20 university, please go to http://www.uky.edu/OPBPA/Top20.html.
RSS