Mentoring the ‘elite of the elite’ hospital residents at Hadassah

For hundreds of years, medical students became hospital interns, passed tests, received approval from senior physicians, graduated – with some studying specialties as residents at home and going on to fellowships abroad – and were thrown into the clinical “pond” and told to swim on their own.

Today, with medicine becoming so complicated and the need for many physicians to conduct in-depth research on diseases, this is not enough. They need a great deal of guidance from the best teachers – even for a decade after they get their MDs and are allowed to treat patients.

All major medical centers in this country and abroad have begun to establish programs to provide guidance to their interns and even residents to improve the quality of treatment and research and to compete with other hospitals, given the shortage of doctors here and elsewhere.

Management knows that to succeed, they must invest large sums and a commitment from leading physicians to provide intensive guidance over long periods.

A year and nine months ago, management at the Hadassah Medical Organization noted that Prof. Arie Ben-Yehuda, director of the Internal Medicine C department, had reached retirement age.

They begged him to continue in another position – at the newly established Hadassah Elite Residency and Training Center for the 107 residents accepted for learning a specialty at the hospital each year and those who have already been studying in the previous three years. He agreed, and the chairmanship fit him perfectly.

“We have taken upon ourselves the mission of making learning innovative and experiential and turning Hadassah’s residency programs into the best in Israel,” said Ben-Yehuda. “The center accompanies young doctors from their internship entry until they become leading specialists at Hadassah, working closely with department heads and fostering a spirit of innovation and action.

“A leading medical center is always a reflection of the quality of its human resources, and therefore we see residents as a valuable asset and believe that investing in them today will bear fruit in the future, both for the Hadassah Medical Organization and for the entire Israeli healthcare system.”

He now works with Dr. Shiri Tenenbaum, Elite’s director and an oncologist who joined Hadassah only three years ago.

“We provide comprehensive support, including a generous research grant, professional mentorship, and personalized guidance for each resident,” explained Tenenbaum, who is deputy director of Hadassah-University Medical Center in Jerusalem’s Ein Kerem and head of the residency and learning directorate at the hospital.

The Hadassah Elite

HADASSAH ELITE is located on the 10th floor, which has been renovated especially for the program. The training program is based on the principle of Competency-Based Medical Education and constitutes a solid foundation for the advancement of residents.

This approach allows for personalization of the learning process, a focus on practical results, ongoing assessment of residents’ progress, and high relevance to contemporary medical practice, Ben-Yehuda said.

It provides scholarships and protected time to complete advanced academic degrees (master’s degree in public health or medical administration), with computational biology, data analysis, cutting-edge medicine, and other courses that substitute for basic sciences.

Residents will participate in communication simulations and laparoscopic simulations, and learn about innovations in genetics and pathology, specific surgical skills, palliative medicine, giving bad news, imaging emergencies, pediatric imaging, CBT (cognitive-behavioral therapy), and fetal brain ultrasound.

The program will provide advanced technological literacy, encourage innovation and entrepreneurship, and include language studies in Arabic and English.

The “Peak” (Kodkod) Forum is a unique program designed for chief residents from all departments of the medical center. It’s designed to promote excellence among chief residents, support them in their roles, and foster future medical leadership. They will meet once a month for enriching meetings.

Hadassah Elite will create research and professional development opportunities for all Hadassah residents who express interest, in close cooperation with the Research Authority headed by Prof. Eyal Mishani.

“We have created a residency mentorship and training program that will make Hadassah’s residency – already considered excellent – the most innovative and leading program in Israel,” Tenenbaum said.

“A major component of developing the program was listening to residents and identifying field needs. Participants, who are offered an excellent package, will receive long-term mentorship from experienced professionals to guide their personal and professional growth,” she told The Jerusalem Post in an interview.

“Most of my life, I worked in other hospitals. There’s a residency program in all of them, but the traditional way to train residents is old fashioned. Medical students and residents often lived at hospitals so they could be close by. There was a lot of standardization, but in the end, the residents finished and went to work. It’s important to be in hospitals, but they have to be trained for even more.”

The previous medical center where she worked, in the center of the country, had a program only for medical students and interns, not residents, and its support was only for five years, with the investment of less money. During the last three years, it hasn’t even made public invitations to doctors to join it, Tenenbaum said.

ISRAEL IS advancing carefully. It has good physicians, but there is a shortage.

“Most Israelis live in the center of the country, so the highest demand for a workplace for doctors – and nurses – is there, and not in Jerusalem, which has a tenth of the whole Israeli population. We have only one medical school, at Hadassah; there are six others in the rest of Israel. We have to compete. The share of doctors is even lower in the northern and southern periphery of the country,” Tenenbaum said.

Now, Hadassah has gone even further by establishing the Nativ (Path) program for five outstanding medical residents per year, providing each with a NIS 500,000 grant in addition to their salaries, and providing them with rigorous and comprehensive support for a whole decade.

It will be headed by the head of Hadassah’s hematology division, Prof. Dina Ben-Yehuda, who is married to Prof. Arie Ben-Yehuda but stands on her own as the first woman to head the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Faculty of Medicine. She also serves as volunteer chairman of Israel’s Drug Basket Committee for the third consecutive year. One wonders how she finds time for it all.

She and her team have received 50 applications for the Nativ program, and they have been sifted to 20 candidates, among whom five will be chosen annually.

“This represents a crucial step in how we choose to train the future generation of doctors and researchers in Israel,” said Dina Ben-Yehuda in an interview.

“Excellence in medicine and research goes far beyond being a slogan. As educators, we must provide the best tools to the most outstanding individuals to help them become leading doctors and researchers.

“This program offers selected participants resources, mentorship, and support for a decade. Graduates of the personalized guidance program will excel in clinical practice, research, education, and leadership, contributing significantly to medicine and society both in Israel and globally.”