January 2022
Associate Professor Gadi Segal is a dedicated physician at Sheba Medical Center. His global roles continue to expand as does his expertise across the medical field.
Dr Segal is Associate Dean and Academic Lead at Sheba Medical Center (SMC) for the University of Nicosia Medical School. We wanted to ask a few questions with our colleague about his role as Associate Dean where he oversees SGUL MBBS students throughout their education and clinical rotations at SMC.
Can you tell us more about the collaboration between Sheba Medical Center and University of Nicosia Medical School?
The collaboration between Sheba and UNIC Medical School is one of our most successful international projects at Sheba. It honours two of Sheba’s main strategic goals: taking care of our future physicians, and expanding Sheba’s global impact by delivering international standards of quality. We find the faculty at UNIC Medical School to be both our associates and personal friends, and the personal approach and geographic proximity captures our warm relationships. We look forward to many continuing years of our successful collaboration. In the immediate future, I hope that we develop more collaborative projects both in the realm of academia and research.
You continue to lead the COVID-19 response at Sheba. Can you share what have been the biggest lessons learnt for you as a doctor, leader and educator throughout this ongoing pandemic?
The biggest lesson I have learnt from the COVID 19 pandemic is that we constantly depend upon our professional workforce. We need to make sure that we employ the highest quality professionals and that we have enough of them. This continues to be the greatest challenge as the pandemic continues.
With excellent education, training, research and mentoring mechanisms we can facilitate the development of high-quality medical professionals who can be ready for future challenges that we can’t foresee.
We understand that you wear many hats in your work. Congratulations on your recent promotion as Associate Professor at TAU! Besides your work at our School, you are also the Head of Internal Medicine and Head of the Education Authority at SMC, and Chairman of the Central Authority for Clinical Trials at the Israeli Ministry of Health. What does an average day look like for you?
I wake up at five in the morning and get to my department at SMC by 5:30. From that point on I am trying to mix and match all my duties together. First come the patients, second their families, third the students and all others after, I usually go home at 7pm and continue my work, mainly research until 10pm.
Sheba continues to be ranked in the top 10 hospitals worldwide; what are some factors that you attribute to this exceptional award?
Sheba is led by visionary Professor Yitshak Kreiss who manages SMC in a highly orderly fashion. His vision combining professional excellence, research innovation, and global impact has put Sheba within an honourable place among other excellent institutions.
Sheba also provides research opportunities for students. Can you tell us about the Arrow Project?
The Arrow project was founded in 2007 by Professor Ahiron who, by the way, was the first Academic Lead for the UNIC/St George’s programme at SMC. Today the Arrow project is led by Professor Katorza.
Through the Arrow Project, we bring together medical students and Sheba esteemed researchers in the fields of preclinical and clinical studies. This is win-win for both students and researchers! The students are going through an outstanding experience whereas the researchers are being reinforced by young, motivated, and intellectual students; a perfect recipe for ongoing innovation and science at Sheba.