Rambam Hosts Meetings with Professor Richard Horton, Editor of British
Medical Journal The Lancet
Rambam Medical Center
Public Affairs and Spokesman
David Ratner, Director
www.rambam.org.il

Haifa, 30 September 2014

Professor Richard Horton, editor of Europe’s most prestigious medical
journal, provoked an academic storm recently when he published an open
letter to the people of Gaza that publically condemned Israeli medical
practices. Today he is visiting Rambam Health Care Campus to experience
first-hand the diversity and multicultural administration of Israeli medical
care.

Rambam Health Care Campus is hosting a series of meetings this week with
Professor Richard Horton, editor of the British medical journal The Lancet,
which is also one of the oldest and most respected journals in the medical
world. Professor Horton will meet with senior researchers and physicians at
Rambam and the Technion’s Ruth and Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, and
attend seminars. On Thursday, Professor Horton will, among other activities,
participate in the Rambam Grand Rounds, a series of faculty lectures given
every Thursday morning at Rambam.

During Operation Protective Edge, Horton instigated a media storm following
publication in The Lancet of an open letter to Gaza signed by several dozen
physicians from the West, accusing Israel of “cruel” and “vicious war
crimes." Publication of the letter brought an immediate reaction from the
international medical community.

Physicians, researchers, and Israeli officials were severely distressed by
the letter and responded strongly to The Lancet. Rambam officials have
stated that the purpose of Horton’s visit is to provide a venue for academic
discussions and meetings in Israel’s multicultural medical institutions that
have strong medical cooperation agreements with the Palestinian Authority to
treat people from the West Bank and Gaza. Some of the lectures and
discussions will also examine the limits and appropriateness of freedom of
political opinion in scientific journals, and openly consider and discuss
the unilateralism of which The Lancet has been accused.

The invitation to personally view the facts of how Israeli medical care is
administered at Rambam and other hospitals received the endorsement of the
Israeli Ministry of Health.

"Rambam Health Care Campus is a medical institution—characterized by some of
the highest standards of scientific research in the world, creating an
unusual human mosaic—an employee culture that includes all sectors and
groups in Israel," says Prof. Rafi Beyar, Director of Rambam, "I believe
that Professor Horton will certainly hear from impressive professional
colleagues and raise questions about the publications that caused such a
furor two months ago. He will be invited to express his opinion. I believe
he will be quite impressed and will learn that Israel’s public health system
does its very best to genuinely care for its neighbors, that
multiculturalism and medical education is extended to health care
professionals in the Palestinian Authority, and he will observe Rambam’s
exceptional openness and scientific representatives, on behalf of the State
of Israel for the development of global research and medicine."