BGU | MY PATH, Haim Doron, MD

FOREWORD Prof. Haim Doron - Architect of Public Medicine and Health Services in Israel. I met Prof. Haim Doron at meetings of Ministry of Health’s health council, in the last years of his life. There, at these meetings of the council, I encountered his vigorous and clear voice championing the importance of public medicine and the centrality of family medicine. As a longtime administrator in the framework of Clalit, I was well acquainted with Prof. Doron’s work, and his longstanding contributions to the public health system in Israel, and emphasis on the Negev. I always viewed him as one of the founding fathers of medicine in Israel, beginning with his impressive project bringing immigrant doctors to serve in the Negev, through his core role in the establishment of the Faculty of Health Sciences at Ben Gurion University of the Negev, and then, in my opinion, his crowning achievement: Establishment of the specialization program in family medicine in the community during his tenure as general-director of Clalit. In this way, Prof. Doron changed forever the quality of family medicine in Israel, and transformed it into an attractive, prestigious and desirable specialty, At one of the meetings of the health council, Prof. Doron requested to meet with me in private. At the time, I was director of Clalit’s southern division and director of the Soroka Medical Center - the former, a role that Prof. Doron had held himself for many years. I was curious to know what he wanted to talk about. It turned out that Doron was worried about the future of family medicine in the Negev. He felt Clalit’s leadership in the region need to initiate a move to upgrade family medicine and carry things forwards to improve its quality in the region to a level he believed the inhabitants of the Negev deserved. I was deeply moved to see him return to his first love, and I put together a program designed to take this issue forward. Decades had passed since Prof. Doron had served as chair of Clalit’s directorate (today the director-general) but here again, I find myself expected to fill his big shoes, this time as director- general of Clalit. In this role I carry with me his legacy regarding the importance of public medicine and the duty to strengthen it, and family medicine as the leading force in this objective. I congratulate my colleagues, Prof. Shifra Shvarts and Prof. Gabi Ben Nun, on the scientific editing of the late Prof. Haim Doron’s manuscript to bring it to fruition. I am sure that the work will construe a significant milestone in the understanding the history of medicine in Israel.

Prof. Ehud Davidson, Director-general, Clalit Health Services (2018-2021)

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