'Dental Tourism to Israel? Ok, I'll Bite...' (exclusive video)

...in which I report on Tour and Smile, for a CNC Video News feature on sectoral tourism - here, "dental tourism," to Israel:

'Novartis, Israeli Startup Ink Pharma Deal'

By Dave Bender
Biopharmaceutical firm NasVax has signed a deal with Swiss pharma giant Norvartis to develop new vaccines together, including influenza-fighting strains. "What's significant is that Novartis is one of the five largest vaccine companies in the world," Dr. Ronald Ellis, NasVax senior vice president and chief technical officer, tells ISRAEL21c, "and they found it attractive to work with us." Read the rest.

Single Chinese Woman 'Be-moms' Orphaned Toddler for Israeli Heart Surgery

By Dave Bender, Hao Fangjia
Quan Shiyi, a volunteer of Beijing, China, is caring for a one-year-and-half-old orphan suffering from a life-threatening congenital heart defect.

Gretel, her English name, is 26 years old and unmarried, and had never looked after a baby, even not changed a diaper. But all that changed in 2009 when she met Qian Baoxin at an orphanage in Beijing, where Gretel volunteered as a translator.

There, she learned the meaning of motherhood. Read the rest.

Single Chinese Woman Becomes Orphan's "Mom" in Israel

"Gretel" (Quan Shiyi), comforts one-and-a-half-year-old Xin Bao at the pediatric ICU at Wolfson Hospital in Holon, Israel, 05/04/2010. Xin Bao is recovering from successful open-heart surgery, via the Save A Child's Heart organization. (Photo: Dave Bender - All Rights Reserved).

Single Chinese Woman Becomes Orphan's "Mom" in Israel

By Dave Bender, Hao Fangjia

Quan Shiyi, a volunteer of Beijing, China, is caring for a one-year-and-half-old orphan suffering from a life-threatening congenital heart defect.

Gretel, her English name, is 26 years old and unmarried, and had never looked after a baby, even not changed a diaper.

But all that changed in 2009 when she met Qian Baoxin at an orphanage in Beijing, where Gretel volunteered as a translator. There, she learned the meaning of motherhood.

One From the Heart: Israeli Docs Save a Chinese Orphan's Life

"Gretel" (Quan Shiyi), the caretaker of one-and-a-half-year-old Xin Bao, comforts him at the pediatric ICU at Wolfson Hospital in Holon, Israel, 05/04/2010. Xin Bao is recovering from successful open-heart surgery, via the Save A Child's Heart organization. (Photo: Dave Bender, All Rights Reserved)

Wow. Really moving experience video interviewing a Chinese young woman and the orphaned infant she's brought to Israel for emergency congenital heart-surgery via "Save a Child's Heart" org, at Wolfson Hospital in Holon.

Gretel, as she calls herself here, is Xin Bao's court-ordered caretaker for the duration of the operation, until they both return to their home city of Beijing, hopefully soon.


"Gretel" (Quan Shiyi), cheers up one-and-a-half-year-old Xin Bao with a "chamsa," good luck charm at the pediatric ICU at Wolfson Hospital in Holon, Israel, 05/04/2010. Xin Bao is recovering from successful open-heart surgery, via the Save A Child's Heart organization. (Photo: Dave Bender, All Rights Reserved)

Also on hand in the ward and at the hospital were Palestinians patients from Gaza, Israeli Arab volunteers, an Ethiopians doc, and kids from Zanzibar and many others.

Will post moving clips, photos and story in coming days at www.davebrianbender.com

Israel, and getting ObamaCare 'Right'

ObamaCare supporters and detractors please take notes; there will be a test (...or maybe several. "Oh, it's probably nothing to worry about - but let's schedule to run some tests just to be on the safe side, ok?"):

"Physicians, health-policy analysts and insurers from the US are learning from the Israeli example about how to provide universal coverage and excellent healthcare at low cost."

Photo courtesy of Chen Leopold/Flash90.

In Israel healthcare begins at birth.

Read the rest.

Cool! More Israeli Things to Boycott!

• Israeli Invention Allows for Early Detection of Cancerous Skin Tumors - Dan Even
  A new Israeli invention allows cancerous tumors on the skin to be detected and examined before they become visible to the naked eye, Ben-Gurion University announced. The developer of the new instrument, Ofir Aharon, a doctoral student at the electrophysiological department at Ben-Gurion University, said the technology "allows manipulation of different light frequencies and adjustments to electric fields to examine skin lesions." (Ha'aretz)
• Tel Aviv University Develops New Wound Dressing with Antibiotics
  About 70% of all people with severe burns die from related infections. But a revolutionary new wound dressing developed at Tel Aviv University could cut that number dramatically. Prof. Meital Zilberman of TAU's Department of Biomedical Engineering has developed a new wound dressing based on fibers she engineered that can be loaded with drugs like antibiotics to speed up the healing process, and then dissolve when they've done their job. A study published in the Journal of Biomedical Materials Research - Applied Biomaterials demonstrates that, after only two days, this dressing can eradicate infection-causing bacteria. The new dressing protects the wound until it is no longer needed, after which it melts away. (Medical News)
• Bone Repair "Breakthrough" at Hadassah - Judy Siegel-Itzkovich
  A team at Jerusalem's Hadassah University Medical Center has managed to separate platelets and adult stem cells from the blood and bone marrow of patients with fractures and inject them - causing the bones to meld in a quarter to third of the time and repairing some breaks that would have failed to heal. (Jerusalem Post)
• Israel Water Tech Thrives in Weakened Economy - Ari Rabinovitch
  Israel's water technology sector has prospered despite the global financial crisis, largely due to global stimulus packages and penetration in developing countries, officials said on Wednesday. Water companies benefit from both infrastructure and cleantech spending, both cornerstones of stimulus packages. Water recycling company Aqwise, whose system breeds bacteria to break down organic waste, saw its sales increase 50% in 2009. (Reuters)

Israeli medical marvel: bloodstream-sized robot

Incredible:

"Israeli scientists have actually created the imaginary technology depicted by the 1966 science fiction movie Fantastic Voyage, in which a submarine is reduced to microscopic size, injected into the bloodstream and able to travel through the body to provide medical treatment.

"A tiny 'submarine' robot has been designed by Dr. Nir Schwalb of the Judea and Samaria College in Ariel and Oded Solomon of the mechanical engineering department of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology.

They say it has the unique ability to 'crawl' through tubes with the width of human veins and arteries, even going against the flow of blood at the speed in which it passes through blood vessels."

Also guess it's goin' on the British boycott list, huh? Maybe they should use the micro-robot to clear out the crap in their brains.

Go astonish yer'self with more Israeli medical advances here.