BGU | MY PATH, Haim Doron, MD

Health and Scientific Affairs under President Bill Clinton. He had served in the same capacity under President Lyndon B. Johnson from 1965 to 1969. During the years Prof. Lee was in Washington as Assistant Secretary, I visited him many times. He was very supportive in many ways, one evening even holding a reception at his house for me and my wife with dozens of people in attendance whom it was important to know. Among those Lee had invited to meet me was the head of the San Francisco- based Koret Foundation. Lee expected the Koret Foundation would want to underwrite our national institute. After I met the Foundation’s people, I set up a meeting with them in San Francisco. As I’ve said before, I believed that establishment of a national institute for health policy research wasn’t just the province of the sick funds and health insurances. I held that such an institute needed as broad a coalition as possible within the health system, and I aspired to make the government medical institutions an integral part of this endeavor. Therefore, I didn’t want to negotiate with the Koret Foundation on my own. 164 I approached Prof. Mordechai Shani, who was already involved in preparations and consultations surrounding the national health insurance bill, requested he come to San Francisco to get acquainted with Prof. Lee, and indicated that together with Prof. Lee we meet with the heads of the Koret Foundation. And so it was. Prof. Lee was pleased to meet Shani, and the three of us went together to meet with the Foundation heads. But at a certain stage, another Israeli entity had approached the Koret Foundation seeking their support, and the Koret Foundation heads decided the other group’s objective was more important to them than a health policy institute in Israel. Thus, the initiative to obtain Koret Foundation backing ended, and the “romance” petered out. The year was 1989, and we returned to Israel empty-handed. At this time in my life, I was engaged in three areas on a volunteer basis: health policy in the Negev; absorption of new immigrant doctors; and continuing development and research of family medicine in Israel, including establishment of the Rambam Network. The Center for Health Policy in the Negev A core initiative that occupied me at this time was the establishment of the center for health policy in the Negev. In the first stages, the center’s main thrust was tied to vitalization of family medicine. Prof. Lechaim Naggan, who had become vice president for research at BGU, introduced me to a South African philanthropist whose husband had donated in the past to the University. She gave a generous donation that could be invested in family medicine research. With it we established the Rambam Network for Family Medicine Research that operates to this day, and also carried out discussions of health policy in Beer Sheva. In the framework of the Center for Health Policy in the Negev, we organized the SELA program which I linked to absorption of immigrant physicians from the Soviet Union. After careful selection, a group of young doctors from the Soviet Union received funding under the program to specialize in family medicine. It included two years of specialization in a hospital and two years in a clinic. They had to pass the two-level medical boards for specialization, but once they passed, we ensured them employment in whatever area of the country they chose. One of the Beer Sheva people did a study that revealed the exam scores of this group of immigrant doctors were higher than those of native Israelis sitting for the exams.

During this period, I also taught in the department for health systems management at the Faculty of Health Sciences at BGU. At the time, there was only an undergraduate degree in

164 Koret Foundation: a private foundation established in San Francisco, California in 1978, is dedicated to strengthening the local Jewish community and continuity of the Jewish People worldwide.

99