Projects

Every Israeli deserves top quality medical treatment, especially during the hardest times. For cancer patients from Southern Israel, surviving their illness is doubly difficult, as there is today no comprehensive cancer center in the South of the country. Soroka believes that this must change, and so we are working to establish Israel’s finest cancer center, to provide world-class treatment and research for the 1,000,000 residents of Israel’s south, and for all Israelis needing medical care. Please read more about the center in development and goal, and consider becoming a partner in this important initiative.

The Neonatal Department at Soroka Medical Center serves the one million residents of the Negev. It is the busiest and one of the leading neonatal departments in Israel. More than 15% of all newborn infants have serious medical problems requiring intensive or special care. In the sole medical center serving the entire southern region of Israel, the Soroka Neonatal Intensive and Special Care units care for several thousand infants per year.

The innovation center will serve as a forum where researchers, hospital staff, graduate and medical students, and external stakeholders meet and exchange ideas, knowledge, and insights. The center will promote curiosity and cross-fertilization by inviting diverse audiences to share challenges and combining teams from different disciplines and backgrounds to address these challenges.

Different segments of society face unique medical concerns. Genetic diseases are one of the most striking examples of this. Ashkenazi Jews and the Bedouin community, for example, suffer disproportionately from very specific hereditary diseases. The Genetics Institute is tackling these often life-threatening challenges head-on. Using best practice techniques in carrier testing, clinical and prenatal diagnosis, and genetic counseling, Soroka is making the Negev a healthier place to live for people from every walk of life.

The use of human biological specimens in medicine is the focus of current public and professional interest worldwide. Yet the diagnosis of most medical disorders is severely hampered by the absence of reliable biomarkers that can be measured prior to the development of diseases. Furthermore, a gap exists between the advanced scientific methodology that allows for precise genetic mapping and our ability to apply in practice the knowledge it provides in a large population.

The new Soroka Medical Center – Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Joint Research Institute will achieve significant diagnostic and therapeutic breakthroughs by combining excellent scientific research with bedside experience and insights that will have substantial positive impact on local and international health and wellbeing. The Institute will attract top physicians and medical researchers to the Negev, ensuring Soroka and Ben-Gurion University’s places among the leading medical research institutions in the world.