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PHOTOS BY JOHN DI SCHER
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Above: Dr. William
Anderson checks the
X-rays of a patient.
Right: Dr. William
Anderson checks
patient Werner Kilp of
Utica in the emergency
room of Troy's William
Beaumont Hospital.
In the hopes
of advancing a
specialty and saving
more lives, a local
physician dedicates
himself to the
improvement of
Israeli emergency
medicine.
JILL DAVIDSON SKLAR
STAFF WRITER
A Righteous
Gentile
y all accounts, Bill Anderson has
it pretty good.
An emergency medicine spe-
cialist, Dr. Anderson is married to
a lovely woman, lives in a nice home in
Beverly Hills and has risen through the
ranks at William Beaumont Hospital in
Troy, where he is now the chief of the
emergency depai tment.
So, it seems a little out of place when
he discusses his passion. You see, Dr. An-
derson is a gentile — in a group of most-
ly American Jewish physicians — who
is dedicated to advancing the state of
emergency medicine in Israel.
For the past two years, the doctors,
B
part of the Society for International Ad-
vancement of Emergency Medical Care,
have taken money out of their own pock-
ets while squeezing time out of their hec-
tic schedules to meet with the heads of
trauma centers of five Israeli hospitals,
in Tel Aviv, Petah Tiqwa, Tel-Hashomer,
Beersheba and Jerusalem.
There, they have reviewed the way
these departments are run, as well as the
manner in which emergency medical
technicians (EMTs) receive and trans-
port patients. In a country where emer-
gency medicine in some areas is about
20 years behind the United States, they
are also helping to establish a residen-
cy program for the specialty and conduct
joint research projects.
"There is so much we want to do," Dr.
Anderson said, adding that recent visits
have furthered information exchanges
and built interest in more projects. 'That
is how you create a dialogue. Now we
have to go from there."
In Israel, where more than 80 percent
of the population is Jewish and less than
3 percent is Christian, many of the emer-
gency departments are staffed during the
day by trained emergency medical spe-
cialists.
Also, the emergency department is
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